SECTION 279.15. Practice with Contagious or Infectious Disease

(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