Our Office of Infectious Disease Services has released the 2017 and 2018 Infectious Disease Outbreak Report. This comprehensive report uses data collected during investigations of outbreaks reported to and investigated by public health. An outbreak is defined as an increase in cases of disease in time or place that is greater than expected. The public [...]
Our Office of Infectious Disease Services has released their 2015 Infectious Disease Outbreak Summary Report, documenting outbreak detection, response, and reporting throughout Arizona. An outbreak is an unexpected increase in the number of people with the same disease at the same time or in the same place. The public health response to outbreaks is a team effort, utilizing knowledge, [...]
In 2013, our Licensing and Infectious Disease Services teams partnered with the Healthcare Associated Infections Advisory Committee to develop a day-long ADVICE Collaborative conference aimed at improving infection control practices. The ADVICE Collaborative brings together licensed dialysis providers, the dialysis network, federal partners and public health professionals to find new ways to promote infection control, build relationships, and identify [...]
Recently our informatics staff in the Office of Infectious Disease Services partnered with hospital IT staff to add two more hospitals to BioSense, the national syndromic surveillance system. We now have 26 hospitals sharing information about all their emergency department visits, including the chief complaint, diagnoses, and patient demographics. We use BioSense to understand what [...]
When you get sick with an infectious disease like Salmonella or the flu, your healthcare provider or the laboratory that conducted the test on you is required to report your illness to the county or state public health department. In Arizona, almost 100 different diseases are reportable. Public health disease detectives investigate reports of diseases [...]
Foodborne outbreaks are unpredictable and often require a rapid response that includes fieldwork and sample collection to identify the source of the outbreak. Our Food Safety Environmental Services Program recognizes the importance of being prepared for these unplanned emergencies, which is why we always have foodborne outbreak response kits at the ready. A few years ago, after [...]
