Bureau of Epidemiology & Disease Control
The Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control within the Division of Public Health plays a central role in the Health Department’s mission to prevent the occurrence and spread of communicable disease. The New York Sanitary Code designates over 70 communicable diseases as reportable. The Bureau maintains surveillance for each disease through investigation performed by experienced epidemiological staff, reports cases of these diseases to New York State, and institutes outbreak control measures when needed.
Bureau activities include:
- Disease Surveillance: Bureau staff investigate cases of communicable diseases and identify case clusters to find common source outbreaks and trace chains of infection to their origin.
- Case investigation: The Bureau gathers information about cases of communicable diseases through interviews with patients/ guardians and communication with their healthcare providers and other involved agencies, to confirm the diagnosis and help determine the disease source. Patients are counseled regarding disease transmission, communicability, risks, and necessary medical follow-up, following New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) guidelines.
- Outbreak control measures: The bureau institutes measures to prevent further spread of disease, such as contact tracing, provision of post-exposure prophylaxis, and notifying and educating individuals or groups of their potential exposure. At times, food handlers, vendors, or wholesale suppliers are identified as the point source of infection and actions are taken to ensure the safety of the public. Actions may include workplace exclusion during acute illness or provision of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to contacts or exposed persons. Bureau staff refer some cases to the Division’s Bureau of Public Health Protection (BPHP) for follow up.
- Contact investigation: The Bureau conducts interviews to identify persons exposed to someone with a communicable disease who may be at risk for infection. For certain diseases, post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of exposed persons with antibiotics or vaccination is recommended.
- Post-exposure prophylaxis: Bureau clinical staff provide antibiotics or vaccination to household members and other close contacts of persons with certain communicable diseases identified through contact investigation. In cases where there are large numbers of exposed persons, staff may set up a point-of-distribution (POD) to allow efficient screening and distribution of PEP.
- Liaison with hospitals: The Bureau’s Nurse Epidemiologists maintain close contact with area hospital Infection Control Practitioners to ascertain suspect patient presentations, unexpected illness, unusual clusters that may indicate a biological terrorist event or unusual occurrence of a communicable disease in the community.
- On-call services: Clinical staff are available 24 hours, seven days a week to respond to urgent public health disease inquiries or issues. Physicians, hospitals, laboratories, and others are required to report to the local health department when a high-priority disease is suspected.
- Rabies post-exposure management: The Bureau fields thousands of calls about animal bites each year, from providers as well as members of the public. Bureau clinical staff provide providers and patients with consultation, education, and authorization for rabies post-exposure prophylaxis on a case-by-case basis utilizing NYSDOH guidelines. Many animal exposure reports are referred to the Bureau of Public Health Protection (BPHP), whose staff manage the exposing animal, providing observation and facilitation of animal testing as needed.
- Adult vaccine promotion: The Bureau encourages recommended adult immunizations and collaborates with the Department’s Immunization Action Program to provide MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines to college students.
- Emergency preparedness: Bureau staff assist the Bureau of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) staff with meeting program goals and grant deliverables. The goal of PHEP is to make and drill plans to respond to a bioterrorist, accidental, or natural biological disaster, where there is a vaccine or medication available to help prevent illness in part or all of the residents of Suffolk County. Bureau staff participate in numerous drills and trainings annually to practice capabilities.