52.03.010 Definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Communicable disease" means a disease or condition that causes serious illness, serious disability, or death, the infectious agent of which may pass or be carried, directly or indirectly, from the body of one person to the body of another.

(b) "Confinement" means quarantine or isolation.

(c) "Constitution" means the Constitution of the Tribe.

(d) "Court" means the Tribal Court.

(e) "Court of Appeals" means the Tribal Court of appeals.

(f) "Health Officer" means the Health Officer of the Tribe.

(g) "Isolation" means the physical separation and restrictions on movement or travel of an individual or groups of individuals who are infected or reasonably believed to be infected with a contagious or possibly contagious disease from non-isolated individuals, to prevent or limit the transmission of the disease to non-isolated individuals.

(h) "Public health emergency" means an occurrence or imminent threat to the health of the public either through an illness or other health condition caused by bio terrorism, toxic waste spill, epidemic or pandemic disease, or a novel and highly fatal infectious agent or biological toxin, or through widespread violence, caused by riots, gang turf warfare, acts of terrorism, or other incidents that poses a substantial risk of a significant number of human facilities, or permanent or long term disability.

(i) "Quarantine" means the physical separation and restrictions on movement or travel of an individual or groups of individuals, who are or may have been exposed to a contagious or possibly contagious disease and who do not show signs or symptoms of a contagious disease, from nonquarantined individuals to prevent or limit the transmission of the disease to nonquarantined individuals.

(j) "Respondent" means the person or group of persons ordered to be confined or restricted under this chapter

(k) "Shelter in place" means finding a safe location indoors and staying at said location, leaving only for essential activities, as defined by the Health Officer, until otherwise instructed by the Health Officer.

(l) "Tribal Council" means the Tribal Council of the Tribe.

(m) "Tribe" means the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

The following public health definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of public health activities:

(n) Accreditation—The development of a set of standards, a process to measure health department performance against those standards, and some form of reward or recognition for those agencies meeting the standards.

(o) Assessment—One of public health's three core functions. The regular collection, analysis, and sharing of information about health conditions, risks, and resources in a community. Assessment is needed to identify health problems and priorities and the resources available to address the priorities and monitor improvement progress.

(p) Assurance—One of the three core functions in public health. Making sure that all populations have access to appropriate and cost-effective care, including health promotion and disease prevention services. These services are assured by encouraging actions by others, collaboration with other organizations, requiring action through regulation, and/or by direct provision of services.

(q) Bioterrorism—The intentional use of any microorganism, virus, infectious substance, or biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, or any naturally occurring or bioengineered component of any such microorganism, virus, infectious substance, or biological product, to cause death disease, or other biological malfunction in a human, animal, plant, or another living organism to influence the conduct of government or to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.

(r) Capacity—The ability to perform the core public health functions of assessment, policy development, and assurance on a continuous, consistent basis, made possible by maintenance of the basic infrastructure of the public health system, including human, capital, and technology resources.

(s) Chronic disease—A disease that has one or more of the following characteristics: it is permanent, leaves residual disability, is caused by a nonreversible pathological alteration, requires special training of the patient for rehabilitation, or may be expected to require a long period of supervision, observation or care.

(t) Clinical services/medical services/personal medical services—Care administered to an individual to treat an illness or injury.

(u) Climate Change- Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle.

(v) Determinants of health—The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that determine the health status of individuals or populations.

(w) Disease—A state of dysfunction of organs or organ systems that can result in diminished quality of life. Disease is largely socially defined and may be attributed to a multitude of factors. Thus, drug dependence is presently seen by some as a disease, when it previous was considered to be a moral or legal problem.

(x) Disease management—To assist an individual to reach his or her optimum level of wellness and functional capability as a way to improve the quality of health care and lower health care costs.

(y) Endemic—Prevalent in or peculiar to a particular locality or people.

(z) Entomologist—An expert on insects.

(aa) Epidemic—A group of cases of a specific disease or illness clearly over what one would normally expect in a particular geographic area. There is no absolute criterion for using the term epidemic; as standards and expectations change, so might the definition of an epidemic, such as an epidemic of violence.

(bb) Epidemiology—The study of the distribution and determinants of diseases and injuries in human populations. Epidemiology is concerned with the frequencies and types of illnesses and injuries in groups of people and with the factors that influence their distribution.

(cc) Foodborne illness—Illness caused by the transfer of disease organisms or toxins from food to humans.

(dd) Health—The state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Health has many dimensions-anatomical, physiological, and mental-and is largely culturally defined. Most attempts at measurement have been assessed in terms of morbidity and mortality.

(ee) Health disparities—Differences in morbidity and mortality due to various causes experience by specific sub-populations.

(ff) Health education—Any combination of learning opportunities designed to facilitate voluntary adaptations of behavior (in individuals, groups, or communities) conducive to health.

(gg) Health Equity- Health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to "attain his or her full health potential" and no one is "disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances." Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment.

(hh) Health promotion—Any combination of health education and related organizational, political, and economic interventions designed to facilitate behavioral and environmental adaptations that will improve or protect health.

(ii) Health status indicators—Measurements of the state of health of a specific individual, group, or population.

(jj) Incidence—The number of cases of disease that have their onset during a prescribed time. It is often expressed as a rate. Incidence is a measure of morbidity or other events that occur within a specified time. See related prevalence.

(kk) Infant mortality rate—The number of live-born infants who die before their first birthday per 1,000 live births.

(ll) Infectious—Capable of causing infection or disease by the entrance of organisms (e.g., bacteria, viruses, protozoan, fungi) into the body, which then grow and multiply. Often used synonymously with "communicable".

(mm) Intervention—A term used in public health to describe a program or policy designed to have an effect on a health problem. Health interventions include health promotion, specific protection, early case finding and prompt treatment, disability limitation, and rehabilitation.

(nn) Infrastructure—The human, organizational, information, and fiscal resources of the public health system that provide the capacity for the system to carry out its functions.

(oo) Isolation—means the physical separation and restrictions on movement or travel of an individual or travel of an individual or groups of individuals, who are or may have been infected or exposed to a contagious or possibly contagious disease and who do not show signs or symptoms of a contagious disease, from nonquarantined individuals signs or symptoms of a contagious disease, form nonquarantined individuals to prevent or limit the transmission of the disease to nonquarantined individuals.

(pp) Morbidity—A measure of disease incidence or prevalence in a given population, location, or other groupings of interest.

(qq) Mortality—A measure of deaths in a given population, location, or other groupings of interest.

(rr) Non-infectious—Not spread by infectious agents. Often used synonymously with "non-communicable".

(ss) Outcomes—Sometimes referred to as results of the health system. These are indicators of health status, risk reduction, and quality of life enhancement.

(tt) Outcome standards—Long-term objectives that define optimal, measurable future levels of health status; maximum acceptable levels of disease, injury, or dysfunction; or prevalence of risk factors.

(uu) Pandemic- A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease over a whole country or the world at a particular time.

(vv) Pathogen—Any agent that causes disease, especially a microorganism such as a bacterium or fungus.

(ww) Police power—A basic power of government that allows restriction of individual rights to protect the safety and interests of the entire population.

(xx) Population-based—Pertaining to the entire population in a particular area. Population-based public health services extend beyond medical treatment by targeting underlying risks, such as tobacco, drug, and alcohol use; diet and sedentary lifestyles; and environmental factors.

(yy) Prevalence—The number of cases of a disease, infected people, or people with some other attribute present during a particular interval of time. It often is expressed as a rate.

(zz) Prevention—Actions taken to reduce susceptibility or exposure to health problems (primary prevention), detect and treat disease in early stages (secondary prevention), or alleviate the effects of disease and injury (tertiary prevention).

(aaa) Primary medical care—Clinical preventive services, first contact treatment services, and ongoing care for commonly encountered medical conditions.

(bbb) Protection—Elimination or reduction of exposure to injuries and occupational or environmental hazards.

(ccc) Protective factor—An aspect of life that reduces the likelihood of negative outcomes, either directly or by reducing the effects of risk factors.

(ddd) Public health—Activities that society does collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy. This includes organized community efforts to prevent, identify, preempt and counter threats to the public's health.

(eee) Public health department/district—Local health agency, operated by local government, with oversight and direction from a local board of health, which provides public health services throughout a defined geographic area.

(fff) Public Health Officer means the individual designated by the Tribe to be the executive responsible for the execution of this title.

(ggg) Public health practice—Organizational practices or processes that are necessary and sufficient to assure that the core functions of public health are being carried out effectively.

(hhh) Quality assurance—Monitoring and maintaining the quality of public health services through licensing and discipline of health professionals, licensing of health facilities, and the enforcement of standards and regulations.

(iii) Rate—A measure of the intensity of the occurrence of an event. For example, the mortality rate equals the number who die in one year divided by the number at risk of dying. Rates usually are expressed using a standard denominator such as 1,000 or 100,000 people.

(jjj) Risk assessment—Identifying and measuring the presence of direct causes and risk factors that, based on scientific evidence or theory, are thought to directly influence the level of a specific health problem.

(kkk) Risk factor—Personal qualities or societal conditions that lead to the increased probability of a problem or problems developing.

(lll) Screening—The use of technology and procedures to differentiate those individuals with signs or symptoms of the disease from those less likely to have the disease.

(mmm) Social marketing—A process for influencing human behavior on a large scale, using marketing principles for societal benefit rather than for commercial profit.

(nnn) Social norm—Expectations about behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are appropriate and sanctioned within a particular society. Social norms can play a powerful role in the health status of individuals.

(ooo) Standards—Accepted measures of comparison that have quantitative or qualitative value.

(ppp) State health agency—The unit of state government that has leading responsibility for identifying and meeting the health needs of the state's citizens. State health agencies can be free-standing or units of multipurpose health and human service agencies.

(qqq) Structural Violence- Structural violence is "invisible, embedded in ubiquitous social structures, normalized by stable institutions and regular experience," and "occurs whenever people are disadvantaged by political, legal, economic, or cultural traditions."

(rrr) Surveillance—Systematic monitoring of the health status of a population. Threshold standards—Rate or level of illness or injury in a community or population that, if exceeded, call for closer attention and may signal the need for renewed or redoubled action.

(sss) TMBCI Health Board-The eleven (11) member authoritative body, recognized by the Tribal Council, to assist in improving health conditions within the Turtle Mountain Jurisdiction through the alleviation of immediate and felt health problems of the people of the Turtle Mountains.

(ttt) Tribal Public Health Department- A federally recognized Tribal government, Tribal organization, or inter-Tribal consortium, as defined in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, as amended having jurisdictional authority to provide public health services, as evidenced by constitution, resolution, ordinance, executive order, or other legal means, intended to promote and protect the Tribe's overall health, wellness, and safety; prevent disease, and respond to issues and events.

(uuu) Years of potential life lost—A measure of the effects of disease or injury in a population that calculates years of life lost before a specific age (often ages 64 or 75). This approach places additional value on deaths that occur at earlier ages.