Advanced Search

Statement of Principles concerning hookworm disease No. 64 of 2008

Subscribe to a Global-Regulation Premium Membership Today!

Key Benefits:

Subscribe Now for only USD$40 per month.
 
 
Statement of Principles
concerning
 
HOOKWORM DISEASE
No. 64 of 2008
 
for the purposes of the
 
Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986
and
Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004
           
Title
1.         This Instrument may be cited as Statement of Principles concerning hookworm disease No. 64 of 2008.
 
Determination
2.         The Repatriation Medical Authority under subsection 196B(2) and (8) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 (the VEA):
(a)       revokes Instrument No. 137 of 1995 concerning ancylostomiasis; and
(b)       determines in its place this Statement of Principles.
 
Kind of injury, disease or death
3.         (a)        This Statement of Principles is about hookworm disease and death from hookworm disease.
(b)              For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, "hookworm disease" means a symptomatic infection in humans caused by Necator americanus or Ancylostoma duodenale hookworms.
(c)              Hookworm disease attracts ICD-10-AM code B76.0-B76.9.
(d)              In the application of this Statement of Principles, the definition of "hookworm disease" is that given at paragraph 3(b) above.
 
Basis for determining the factors
4.         The Repatriation Medical Authority is of the view that there is sound medical-scientific evidence that indicates that hookworm disease and death from hookworm disease can be related to relevant service rendered by veterans, members of Peacekeeping Forces, or members of the Forces under the VEA, or members under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 (the MRCA).
 
Factors that must be related to service
5.         Subject to clause 7, at least one of the factors set out in clause 6 must be related to the relevant service rendered by the person.
 
Factors
6.         The factor that must as a minimum exist before it can be said that a reasonable hypothesis has been raised connecting hookworm disease or death from hookworm disease with the circumstances of a person’s relevant service is:
 
(a)               having cutaneous or mucosal contact with Ancylostoma duodenale hookworm larvae within the six years before the clinical onset of hookworm disease; or
 
(b)              having cutaneous or mucosal contact with Necator americanus hookworm larvae within the six years before the clinical onset of hookworm disease; or
 
(c)              being in an area endemic for Ancylostoma duodenale hookworm within the six years before the clinical onset of hookworm disease; or
 
(d)              being in an area endemic for Necator americanus hookworm within the six years before the clinical onset of hookworm disease; or
 
(e)              inability to obtain appropriate clinical management for hookworm disease.
 
Factors that apply only to material contribution or aggravation
7.         Paragraph 6(e) applies only to material contribution to, or aggravation of, hookworm disease where the person’s hookworm disease was suffered or contracted before or during (but not arising out of) the person’s relevant service.
 
Inclusion of Statements of Principles
8.         In this Statement of Principles if a relevant factor applies and that factor includes an injury or disease in respect of which there is a Statement of Principles then the factors in that last mentioned Statement of Principles apply in accordance with the terms of that Statement of Principles as in force from time to time.
 
Other definitions
9.         For the purposes of this Statement of Principles:
 
"an area endemic for Ancylostoma duodenale hookworm" means northern Africa south to Angola, the Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, China, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Australia north of the Tropic of Capricorn, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, and the Mediterranean;
 
"an area endemic for Necator americanus hookworm" means Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Uraguay, Paraguay, the West Indies, Africa south of the Sahara desert, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, China, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia; Mexico, the Gulf States of the United States of America (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina) and Puerto Rico;
 
"death from hookworm disease" in relation to a person includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person’s hookworm disease;
 
"ICD-10-AM code" means a number assigned to a particular kind of injury or disease in The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM), Sixth Edition, effective date of 1 July 2008, copyrighted by the National Centre for Classification in Health, Sydney, NSW, and having ISBN 978 1 74210 016 6;
 
"relevant service" means:
(a)       operational service under the VEA;
(b)       peacekeeping service under the VEA;
(c)               hazardous service under the VEA;
(d)               warlike service under the MRCA; or
(e)               non-warlike service under the MRCA;
 
"terminal event" means the proximate or ultimate cause of death and includes:
(a)        pneumonia;
(b)       respiratory failure;
(c)       cardiac arrest;
(d)       circulatory failure; or
(e)               cessation of brain function.
 
Application
10.       This Instrument applies to all matters to which section 120A of the VEA or section 338 of the MRCA applies.
 
Date of effect
11.       This Instrument takes effect from 3 September 2008.
 
Dated this       twentieth           day of              August               2008
 
 
The Common Seal of the                  )
Repatriation Medical Authority       )
was affixed to this instrument          )
in the presence of:                            )
 
KEN DONALD
CHAIRPERSON