Public Act 103-0557
 
SB1803 EnrolledLRB103 27408 AWJ 57003 b

    AN ACT concerning State government.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Department of Natural Resources
(Conservation) Law of the Civil Administrative Code of
Illinois is amended by adding Section 805-72 as follows:
 
    (20 ILCS 805/805-72 new)
    Sec. 805-72. Lyme Disease Innovation Program.
    (a) The Department shall consult with the Department of
Agriculture, the Department of Public Health, and members of
the University of Illinois' INHS Medical Entomology Program to
establish the Lyme Disease Innovation Program no later than
one year after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the
103rd General Assembly. The Department shall contract with an
Illinois not-for-profit organization whose purpose is to raise
awareness of tick-borne diseases with the public and the
medical community to operate the Program. The Program's
purpose is to raise awareness with the public and to assist
persons at risk of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases
with education and awareness materials and campaigns while
developing evidence-based approaches that are cost-effective.
    (b) The Program shall implement a statewide interagency
and multipronged approach to combat Lyme disease and other
tick-borne diseases in Illinois, including adopting an
evidence-based model that recognizes the key roles that
patients, advocates, and not-for-profit organizations have in
fighting Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases. The Program's
objectives include issuing grants, subject to the approval of
the Department, to State agencies and Illinois not-for profit
organizations from moneys in the Lyme Disease Awareness Fund,
which is hereby established as a special fund in the State
treasury, and other appropriations for the following purposes:
        (1) Bringing awareness of Lyme disease and tick-borne
    diseases by any one or more of the following methods:
            (A) creating innovative ideas and collaborations
        for raising awareness about risks and prevention;
            (B) amplifying and improving access to essential
        information supporting innovations in prevention,
        education, and care with open data and science;
            (C) fostering the development of new,
        community-based education and prevention efforts; and
            (D) using programs, website advertising,
        pamphlets, or other methods to increase the awareness
        of Lyme disease and tick-borne diseases;
        (2) Engaging stakeholders to facilitate
    patient-centered innovations by (i) building trust among
    stakeholders through listening sessions, roundtables, and
    other learning approaches that ground innovations in lived
    experience, (ii) engaging stakeholders in identifying
    current areas of need to promote targeted innovations that
    will make real-world improvements in quality of care, and
    (iii) gaining insight into patient needs and priorities
    through stakeholders' collective wisdom and applying that
    wisdom in shaping future innovation challenges and events.
        (3) Advancing stakeholder driven interdisciplinary and
    interagency collaborations by providing resources to
    not-for-profit organizations whose purpose is to raise
    awareness of tick-borne diseases with the public and the
    medical community in order to (i) facilitate the
    stakeholder engagement and collaborations and
    patient-centered innovations and support groups, (ii)
    identify ways to better collect and share data while
    raising awareness of tick-borne illnesses, and (iii)
    assist with the development of outreach and education
    materials and approaches for State agencies.
        (4) The University of Illinois' INHS Medical
    Entomology Program maintaining a passive tick and
    tick-borne pathogen surveillance program, based on ticks
    contributed by the Illinois public, and including tick
    identifications and disease-agent testing of a subset of
    identified ticks; compiling evidence and conducting
    research on tick bite prevention and risk of tick and
    tick-borne pathogen exposure; and providing evidence,
    results, and analysis and insight from both the passive
    surveillance program, on tick species and tick-borne
    disease-agent distributions and diversity in the State,
    and its related research on tick bite exposure and
    prevention, to support the Lyme Disease Innovation Program
    objectives.
    (c) The Program shall be funded through moneys deposited
into the Lyme Disease Awareness Fund and other appropriations.
The not-for-profit organization contracted with to operate the
Program shall be paid, subject to the approval of the
Department, for its operation of the Program from moneys
deposited into the Fund or from other appropriations.
    The University of Illinois' Prairie Research Institute
shall be paid, subject to the approval of the Department, for
the INHS Medical Entomology Program's operation of a passive
tick surveillance and research program from moneys deposited
into the Fund or from other appropriations.
    (d) The Department must adopt rules to implement this
Section.
    (e) The requirements of this Section are subject to
appropriation by the General Assembly being made to the
Department to implement the requirements.
 
    Section 90. The State Finance Act is amended by adding
Section 5.990 as follows:
 
    (30 ILCS 105/5.990 new)
    Sec. 5.990. The Lyme Disease Awareness Fund.
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.

Effective Date: 8/11/2023