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**5 Year CD Summaries**

Communicable Disease Control

A communicable disease is an illness due to an infectious agent or its toxic products arising through transmission of that agent or its products from reservoir to susceptible host, either directly as from an infected person or animal, or indirectly through the agency of an intermediate plant or animal host, a vector, or the inanimate environment. Physicians, laboratories, infection control practitioners and other health care providers play a key role in health department efforts to control communicable diseases. The public health system depends upon their reports of diseases to monitor the vital signs of the community and to provide the basis for preventive action Health care providers are required to report communicable diseases for a number of reasons. The most common are listed as follows:

  • To identify outbreaks and epidemics. If an unusual number of cases occur, the health department must investigate to control the spread of the disease. Examples: measles, salmonella, syphilis, giardiasis, influenza, cryptosporidiosis, noro virus.
  • To enable preventive treatment and/or education to be provided. Household contacts or sexual partners need to be identified for prophylaxis, treatment and/or education about how to prevent spread for some infections. Examples: meningococcal infections, TB, Chlamydia and HIV infection.
  • To help target prevention programs, identify care needs and use scarce prevention resources efficiently. The prevention dollar is shrinking. Public health authorities and health care providers must make difficult choices about what prevention and treatment services will be provided. Communicable disease statistics help to maximize the impact of these dollars. Examples: Lyme Disease, AIDS.
  • To evaluate the success of long term control efforts. Public health programs must have a means of assessing the continued success of control efforts for some diseases. Examples: vaccine preventable diseases, Chlamydia, Hepatitis B, influenza.
  • To facilitate epidemiologic research to uncover a preventable cause. For some diseases of unknown etiology reporting is needed to allow studies of the occurrence of the disease to help find the cause or risk factors. Examples: Reyes Syndrome, Guillain Barre Syndrome, Hepatitis C.
  • To assist with national and international disease surveillance efforts. For some diseases that are unusual here, we are part of a national network that the federal government depends on to determine whether national or international investigations are needed. Examples: Cholera, malaria, yellow fever, pandemic influenza.

Eligibility Requirements:

  • Residents of Dickinson and Iron County

Fees:

  • None

For more information on Dickinson-Iron District Health Department's Communicable Disease Program:
Please contact Ruth Manier RN BSN at (906) 779-7227

Other Information:

 
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818 Pyle Drive, Kingsford, MI 49802 - Phone: 1-906-774-1868
601 Washington Ave, Iron River, MI 49935 - Phone: 1-906-265-9913