Disease Control

  Activities include investigation, intervention, monitoring and coordinated reporting of communicable diseases; epidemiological education and consultation to infectious disease control staff including county health departments, laboratories, local hospitals, managed care organizations and private physicians. Weekly reporting and coordination of services with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is also required including data and information used to prepare the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published by the U.S. Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. County health department staff forward reports of communicable diseases to state program staff and investigate cases to determine source of the agent, the mode of transmission, the time of transmission and whether other people have been exposed. Outbreaks are investigated to determine source. Control measures are taken around individual cases and outbreaks. Surveillance of reportable diseases by county health department staff permits the Department to take prompt preventive measures around individual cases of preventable diseases. For example:

• Provide emergency antibiotic treatment to children and staff in day care centers exposed to a case of bacterial meningitis;
• Take prompt preventive measures when a cluster of preventable diseases occur-for example, to deal with a hot tub or ventilation system in a building that is leading to cases of Legionnaire's disease;
• Take prompt preventive measures when a food borne outbreak is identified by closing a restaurant temporarily or excluding specific food-handlers from working;
• Identify high-risk groups for certain infections and concentrate preventive measures-for example, by identifying neighborhoods in which measles immunization levels are low in preschool children and set up special immunization clinics;
• Identify high-risk groups for certain infections in which screening programs are needed-for example, groups of children who might need tuberculosis screening and preventive treatment.

 

Links:

http://www.doh.state.fl.us/disease_ctrl/epi/index.html