Policy IV-B-4: Policy on Communicable Disease for Students
Communicable Diseases For Students

This policy defines communicable diseases and outlines the management procedures in the college environment for students having communicable diseases.
  1. Communicable diseases include, but are not limited to, measles, influenza, viral hepatitis-A (infectious hepatitis), viral hepatitis-B (serum hepatitis), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV infection), AIDS, AIDS-Related Complex (ARC), meningitis, meningococcal infections, and tuberculosis. A complete list of the communicable diseases reportable to the health authority and therefore subject to this policy is included as Attachment A. For the purposes of this policy, the term "HIV infection" shall include AIDS, AIDS-Related Complex (ARC), and a positive test for the antibody to human immunodeficiency virus.

  2. The college's decisions involving persons who have communicable diseases shall be based on current and well-informed medical judgments concerning the disease, the risks of transmitting the illness to others, the symptoms and special circumstances of each individual who has a communicable disease, and a careful weighing of the identified risks and the available alternatives for responding to a student with a communicable disease.

  3. The college shall not discriminate in enrollment against any student solely on the grounds that the student has a communicable disease. Members of the student body of the college shall not be denied access to college facilities or campus activities solely on the grounds that they have a communicable disease. The college reserves the right to exclude, or restrict, a person with a communicable disease from college facilities, programs, and functions if the college makes a medically based determination that the person constitutes a direct threat to the health or safety of others.

  4. The college shall comply with all pertinent statutes and regulations which protect the privacy of persons in the college community who have a communicable disease. The college shall ensure that procedural safeguards sufficient to maintain the strictest confidence about persons who have HIV infection are in effect in all offices of the college.

  5. The college shall develop and maintain a comprehensive education program about HIV infection for members of the college community. The program shall include, but is not limited to, the following topics: current medical opinions about the nature of HIV infection and its symptoms, methods of transmission, types of behavior which increase the risk of transmission of the disease, preventive measures for avoiding infection by the HIV virus, confidentiality, and behaviors, associated with HIV transmissions which are in violation of Texas law.

ATTACHMENT A

 25 Tex. Admin. Code s 97.3 (b) [as amended in 12 Tex. Reg. 4690 (1987)]:

The following diseases are reportable:

acquired immune deficiency syndrome; amebiasis; anthrax; botulism-adult and infant; brucellosis; campylobacteriosis; chickenpox; Chlamydia trachomatis infection; cholera; coccidioidomycosis; dengue; diphtheria; encephalitis (specify etiology); gonorrhea; Hansen's disease (leprosy); Haemophilus influenzae infections; hepatitis, viral-type A, type B, type D (delta agent), type non-A/non-B, and unspecified types; histoplasmosis; HIV infection; influenza and flu-like illness; legionellosis; leptospirosis; listeria infection; Lyme disease; malaria; measles; meningitis-bacterial, aseptic/viral, fungal and other (specify etiology, all types); meningococcal infections; mumps; pertussis; plague; poliomyelitis; paralytic; psittacosis; Q fever; rabies in man; Reyes syndrome; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; rubella; rubella congenital syndrome; salmonellosis; shigellosis; syphilis; tetanus; toxic shock syndrome; trichinosis; tuberculosis; tularemia; typhoid fever; typhus fever-endemic (murine) and epidemic; vibrio infections; viral hemorrhagic fever; and yellow fever.

(See Guidelines and Procedures, Section 8-3)
(Effective February 3, 1992.)