BILL NUMBER:S781

TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to designating
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) as a communicable
disease and requiring general hospitals to identify and track the
incidence of such communicable disease in accordance with the hospital
acquired infection reporting system

PURPOSE:

Designates Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) as a
communicable disease, and requires physicians, hospitals, or
institutions to identify, track, and report upon such disease.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends Article 21 of the Public Health Law by adding a new
Title eight. Section 2180 of Title eight requires the Commissioner to
designate CRE as a communicable disease in the sanitary code and
requires general hospitals to track each incidence of CRE and report
such incidences on a monthly basis to the department in accordance
with the state's hospital acquired infection reporting system.

Section two amends § 2819 of the Public Health Law to include CRE as a
              

hospital acquired infection.

Section three states the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION:

The Center for Disease Control has called CRE the "nightmare
bacteria," and issued a March 2013 report calling for rapid action.
CRE bacteria are difficult to treat because they are resistant to
commonly used antibiotics. Some CRE bacteria have become resistant to
almost all available antibiotics and can be deadly-one report cites
they can contribute to death in up to 50% of patients who become
infected. Further, CRE can turn other bacteria in the body into
drug-resistant bacteria as well.

CRE infections are most commonly seen in sick patients with exposure
to health care settings like hospitals and long-term care facilities,
such as skilled nursing facilities, and long-term acute care
hospitals. Patients whose care requires devices like ventilators,
urinary catheters, or intravenous catheters, and patients who are
taking long courses of certain antibiotics are among those most at
risk for CRE infections. Bacteria are spread by person-to-person
contact, mostly via hands. The CDC has urged doctors, hospital leaders
and public health professionals to work together to implement the
CDC's "detect and protect" strategy to stop these infections from
spreading. One such measure is the reporting by medical facilities of
any instances of CRE.

This legislation responds to the CDC's suggested strategies by making
mandatory the reporting of CRE. Cases of CRE should be reported and
track by the Department of Health to adequately address incidences and


ensure appropriate control measures are being taken. New York already
has systems in place to track and report other communicable diseases
and hospital acquired infections and is in a good position to add CRE
to that process. By adopting this legislation, New York will join the
six other states requiring medical facilities to report incidences of
CRE. By doing so, we can halt the spread of this potentially deadly
bacteria.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.4414 of 2014.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.