A communicable infection which is designated as such under the public health act and regulations of a jurisdiction. Usually these are; common, severe, easily prevented, highly communicable, costly, generate fear in people, and/or show changes in manifestation, population affected, or geographic range.
Published in Chapter:
Notifiable Disease Databases for Client Management and Surveillance
Ann M. Jolly (University of Ottawa, Canada) and James J. Logan (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Copyright: © 2017
|Pages: 31
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-2515-8.ch017
Abstract
The spread of certain infectious diseases, many of which are preventable, is widely acknowledged to have a detrimental effect on society. Reporting cases of these infections has been embodied in public health laws since the 1800s. Documenting client management and monitoring numbers of cases are the primary goals in collecting these data. A sample notifiable disease database is presented, including database structure, elements and rationales for collection, sources of data, and tabulated output. This chapter is a comprehensive guide to public health professionals on the content, structure, and processing of notifiable disease data for regional, provincial, and federal use.