An infectious disease may be contracted through a variety of life situations, such as being transmitted directly or indirectly from person-to-person, transmitted from an insect bite, from ingesting contaminated food or water, or from exposure to organisms in the environment.
WorkSafeNB makes decisions on acceptance of all claims, including infectious disease claims, using section 7 of the Workers’ Compensation Act (WC Act), Policy 21-100 Conditions for Entitlement – General Principles, and Policy 21-113 Decision-making.
Given the complexity of infectious disease claims due to the possibility of multiple plausible exposures, both work and non-work-related, this policy provides additional decision-making guidance on determining when an infectious disease is considered to be a personal injury arising out of and in the course of the worker’s employment.
To determine if an infectious disease arose out of and in the course of employment, evidence must show that, in a particular case, the risk of contracting the infectious disease through the employment is greater than the risk associated with contracting the infectious disease through the worker’s day-to-day living.
For the decision-making process for occupational diseases claims, see Policy 21-111 Conditions for Entitlement – Occupational Diseases.
Determining date of accident
1. For infectious diseases, WorkSafeNB considers the date of accident to be the date of disablement. When there is no evidence of disablement, WorkSafeNB uses the date of diagnosis as the date of accident.
Diagnosis
2. WorkSafeNB considers the test of personal injury to a have been met when the worker has been diagnosed with an infectious disease by a qualified health care provider.
3. The time between the worker’s plausible exposure and the worker’s onset of symptoms must be clinically compatible with the infectious disease’s recognized incubation period.
Information-gathering
4. WorkSafeNB considers medical evidence to be the most important information for establishing if a work-related exposure could have caused the infectious disease.
5. When gathering evidence to determine the likelihood of whether the exposure that caused the worker’s infectious disease arose out of and in the course of employment, WorkSafeNB may ask the following questions:
There is no requirement that all questions be answered either in the affirmative or negative to determine entitlement. Rather, the information gathered by asking these, and any other questions WorkSafeNB determines appropriate in a particular case, forms evidentiary considerations upon which to make a decision.
Decision-making
6. The contracting of an infectious disease commonly involves multiple plausible exposures. Workplace exposure does not need to be determined as being the only possible exposure to the disease. When making a decision on entitlement based on a preponderance of evidence, the evidence must show that it is more likely than not that the exposure that caused the worker’s infectious disease arose out of and in the course of employment.
Accident – includes a wilful and intentional act, not being the act of a worker, and also includes a chance event occasioned by a physical or natural cause, as well as a disablement caused by an occupational disease and any other disablement arising out of and in the course of employment, but does not include the disablement of mental stress or a disablement caused by mental stress, other than as an acute reaction to a traumatic event. (Workers’ Compensation Act).
Infectious Disease – A disease caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites.
Preponderance of evidence – the most persuasive and impressive information on one side of a case that outweighs the information on the other side. A preponderance of evidence is not decided on the quantity of information alone, but on the significance and strength of the evidence as well.