Priority Objectives
The Division of Acute Disease Epidemiology has the following Priority Objectives:
- Disease surveillance and control activities
- Disease outbreak investigations
- Bioterrorism planning and preparedness
- Health status data collection, organization, analysis and interpretation
- Development of new systems to gather health status data
- Planning for integration and joint analyses of different health databases
- Public health, clinical, and epidemiologic consultations
- Epidemiology and disease control training
Disease Surveillance and Control Activities
The Division of Acute Disease Epidemiology conducts surveillance for and provides response activities to control communicable diseases and other health events that may pose a public health threat. The Division creates the Official List of Reportable Conditions, those conditions that health care providers and laboratory workers are mandated to report (see link). Surveillance is conducted for these conditions to monitor disease occurrence and morbidity, to promptly deliver interventions to minimize disease transmission and to monitor the effectiveness of our public health programs.
Disease Outbreak Investigations
An outbreak, sometimes called an epidemic, is the occurrence of more cases of a disease than expected in a given area or among a specific group of people during a defined period of time. As required by law, DHEC may and must investigate and control disease transmission. The Division of Acute Disease Epidemiology promptly investigates reports of outbreaks with the goal of determining the cause and extent of the disease, interrupting transmission and/or preventing future occurrences by implementing control and prevention measures.
Bioterrorism Planning and Preparedness
Over the past year, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), working with federal and local partners, improved the state’s ability to respond to a Bioterrorist (BT) attack. The following key accomplishments highlight DHEC’s progress in strengthening BT preparedness capacity.
Bioterrorism Preparedness Accomplishments:
- Integrated Bioterrorism Planning Efforts
- Enhanced Rapid Disease Investigation Capabilities
- Increased State Public Health Laboratory Testing
- Rapid Electronic Communication to Our Staff and External Partners
- Bioterrorism Training and Educational Initiatives
- Public Health Preparedness Media Campaigns
Collect, Organize, Analyze, Interpret Health Status Data
- Official List of Reportable Conditions
- Disease Morbidity Tables
The Disease Morbidity Tables provide summary data of diseases reported from physicians and laboratories. Provided are tables compiled for the period 1995-2002 for selected conditions that are reported to DHEC. Some conditions that are reportable but that occur rarely are not included in the summary tables. The data should be interpreted with the understanding that all disease occurrences may not be reported to our system. Variations in reporting from year to year may not represent significant changes because there are small numbers of reports.
Click here for Annual Morbidity Reports.