State Codes and Statutes

Statutes > Utah > Title-26 > Chapter-06 > 26-6-2

26-6-2. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Carrier" means an infected individual or animal who harbors a specific infectiousagent in the absence of discernible clinical disease and serves as a potential source of infection forman. The carrier state may occur in an individual with an infection that is inapparent throughoutits course, commonly known as healthy or asymptomatic carrier, or during the incubation period,convalescence, and postconvalescence of an individual with a clinically recognizable disease,commonly known as incubatory carrier or convalescent carrier. Under either circumstance thecarrier state may be of short duration, as a temporary or transient carrier, or long duration, as achronic carrier.
(2) "Communicable disease" means illness due to a specific infectious agent or its toxicproducts which arises through transmission of that agent or its products from a reservoir to asusceptible host, either directly, as from an infected individual or animal, or indirectly, through anintermediate plant or animal host, vector, or the inanimate environment.
(3) "Communicable period" means the time or times during which an infectious agentmay be transferred directly or indirectly from an infected individual to another individual, from aninfected animal to man, or from an infected man to an animal, including arthropods.
(4) "Contact" means an individual or animal having had association with an infectedindividual, animal, or contaminated environment so as to have had an opportunity to acquire theinfection.
(5) "Epidemic" means the occurrence or outbreak in a community or region of cases of anillness clearly in excess of normal expectancy and derived from a common or propagated source. The number of cases indicating an epidemic will vary according to the infectious agent, size, andtype of population exposed, previous experience or lack of exposure to the disease, and time andplace of occurrence. Epidemicity is considered to be relative to usual frequency of the disease inthe same area, among the specified population, at the same season of the year.
(6) "Incubation period" means the time interval between exposure to an infectious agentand appearance of the first sign or symptom of the disease in question.
(7) "Infected individual" means an individual who harbors an infectious agent and whohas manifest disease or inapparent infection. An infected individual is one from whom theinfectious agent can be naturally acquired.
(8) "Infection" means the entry and development or multiplication of an infectious agentin the body of man or animals. Infection is not synonymous with infectious disease; the resultmay be inapparent or manifest. The presence of living infectious agents on exterior surfaces of thebody, or upon articles of apparel or soiled articles, is not infection, but contamination of suchsurfaces and articles.
(9) "Infectious agent" means an organism such as a virus, rickettsia, bacteria, fungus,protozoan, or helminth that is capable of producing infection or infectious disease.
(10) "Infectious disease" means a disease of man or animals resulting from an infection.
(11) "Isolation" means the separation, for the period of communicability, of infected individuals or animals from others, in such places and under such conditions as to prevent thedirect or indirect conveyance of the infectious agent from those infected to those who aresusceptible or who may spread the agent to others.
(12) "Quarantine" means the restriction of the activities of well individuals or animalswho have been exposed to a communicable disease during its period of communicability to

prevent disease transmission.
(13) "School" means a public, private, or parochial nursery school, licensed or unlicensedday care center, child care facility, family care home, headstart program, kindergarten,elementary, or secondary school through grade 12.
(14) "Sexually transmitted disease" means those diseases transmitted through sexualintercourse or any other sexual contact.

Amended by Chapter 211, 1996 General Session