Communicable Disease

Communicable Disease Investigations

The Jefferson County Health Department nursing staff is responsible for assisting the Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment in completing local communicable disease investigations to identify sources of infection and disease spread, as well as identifying those individuals within the county who may have been exposed or are susceptible to the communicable diseases within the population at any time.

The staff follows guidelines set forth by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state health officer, and the state epidemiologist, as well as the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control and the local communicable disease authority, the Jefferson County Health Department.

Reporting Communicable Diseases

The State of Kansas has determined which communicable diseases must be reported by Kansas physicians, hospitals, long-term care facilities, child care facilities, schools, and laboratories. These laws determine which diseases the county health department staff monitor, investigate, and assure appropriate treatment has or is being completed. View more information from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment:
All individual communicable disease reports are kept confidential at the state and local level, while the presence of communicable disease within a community may be announced to provide opportunity for the population to be aware of prevention methods. Individual case names, addresses, demographics, etc. are not disclosed in the process of disease confinement and the prevention of disease spread.

Resources