| (a) The Texas Optometry Act, §351.454, requires
that no licensed optometrist or therapeutic optometrist practice optometry
or therapeutic optometry while knowingly suffering from a contagious
or infectious disease, if the disease is one that could reasonably
be transmitted in the normal performance of optometry or therapeutic
optometry.
(b) For purposes of interpretation, a "contagious
or infectious disease" is defined as a "disease capable
of being transmitted from one person to another by contact or close
proximity." Infectious agents transmitted from one person to
another by contact or close proximity would include bacteria and viruses.
(c) A licensee shall be deemed practicing while knowingly
suffering from an infectious or contagious disease when a medical
diagnosis of that disease has been made.
(d) The following include but are not limited to infectious
diseases or diseases that can be transmitted:
(1) Infectious agents which may be transmitted by direct
contact or by respiratory route include: chickenpox, common cold,
infectious mononucleosis, influenza, mycoplasma pneumonia, measles,
meningococcal disease, mumps, pertussis, rubella and tuberculosis.
(2) Diseases that could be transmitted by direct contact
include: chlamydia trachomatous infections, herpes simplex viruses,
staphylococcal infections, streptococcal infections, and bacterial
and viral conjunctivitis.
|
| Source Note: The provisions of this §279.15 adopted to be effective July 5, 1995, 20 TexReg 4488; amended to be effective August 2, 1998, 23 TexReg 7564; amended to be effective February 12, 2023, 48 TexReg 682 |
