| The purpose of the Epidemiology (Epi) Department is to prevent the occurrence and spread of disease in Hamilton County. This is accomplished through many activities including community education, data gathering and analysis, disease investigations, surveillance of disease syndromes, and reporting disease information to the Tennessee Department of Health's Communicable and Environmental Disease Services.
Hospitals, laboratories, physician offices, and clinics are required by Tennessee state law to report notifiable diseases to the health department. Click here to access the TN Reportable Disease List and Report Form.
Reports of a communicable disease can be mailed, faxed, or called to the Epi Department. Diseases that require immediate telephone reporting can be called to the above number at any time. Instructions for reaching staff on-call after hours are available at (423) 209-8010.
Reports of tuberculosis should be called to (423) 209-8030 and reports of sexually transmitted diseases should be called to (423) 209-8266.
When a report of a notifiable disease is received by the health department a nurse in the Epi department interviews the patient or family member to determine possible causes and risk factors associated with the disease. The goal of gathering this data and doing follow-up investigations on certain diseases is to prevent disease spread in the community.
The monitoring of data from a variety of other sources will assist the health department in the rapid detection of a potential disease outbreak or health threat.
CURRENT FLU SURVEILLANCE INFORMATION
*Influenza-Like Illness, as defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is fever with a temperature of 100ºF or greater and a cough
and/or sore throat in the absence of a known cause other than influenza.
Education is an important component of disease prevention. Information on specific diseases can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website www.cdc.gov. In addition, the Epi department has developed various fact sheets that can be printed and used for patient education. Those fact sheets include information about Hepatitis A, B, and C, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus), Pertussis (Whooping Cough), Shigellosis, Shingles, and Viral Meningitis. Click the following link for these helpful fact sheets.
DISEASE FACT SHEETS
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