Ryan White Act Expanded to Include COVID-19 Reporting
Executive Summary:
For those Public Safety Agencies reporting an employee’s possible exposure, and expecting notification of a positive COVID-19 disease result from the hospital or public health officer, the expanded Ryan White Act of 2009 update has been published by NIOSH/CDC and will address this issue. Furthermore, emergency response employees covered by the Act have been defined.
Full Report:
The CDC/NIOSH has updated the Infectious Diseases and Circumstances Relevant to Notification of Emergency Response Employees: Implementation of Sec.2695 of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009. This Act from 2009, amended the Public Health Service Act and addressed notification procedures and requirements for medical facilities and state public health officers and their designated officers, regarding exposure of emergency response employees (EREs) to potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. The updated document includes the list of diseases that this Act applies to, guidelines that describe the circumstances by which the exposures to the listed diseases occur, and the guidelines for determining if an exposure of a listed disease actually occurred, as outlined in the Act.
For NIOSH Announcement of Update:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2020-119/default.html?deliveryName=USCDC_10_4-DM24118
For Link to Update Document PDF:
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2020-119/pdfs/2020-119.pdf?id=10.26616/NIOSHPUB2020119
The update includes:
- Addition to the list of infectious diseases of COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Addition of the definition of those covered as ‘Emergency Response Employees’ (EREs) which includes “firefighters, law enforcement officers, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, funeral service practitioners, and other individuals (including employees of legally organized and recognized volunteer organizations, without regard to whether such employees receive nominal compensation) who, in the course of their duties, respond to emergencies in the geographic area involved.”
- Further clean-up of the Act as outlined in the complete document.
