Communicable Disease Control

The Marion County Health Department manages an average of 3,500 communicable infections yearly, not including traditionally-defined STDs. These infections range in severity from meningitis to diarrhea, requiring interventions ranging from education to prophylaxis of contacts and isolation of cases. A successful passive surveillance and an active community surveillance system provides the program with a timely view of current communicable infections within the county. These systems save Marion County residents loss of time at work due to illness and medical expenses.

The program's initiatives include:

• Maintaining current surveillance systems and initiating cooperative surveillance with hospitals to monitor emerging antibiotic-resistant bacteria;
• Providing in-service and educational programs on universal precautions and prevention of communicable diseases in target populations including day cares, mental health and law enforcement agencies; and
• Alerting the medical community when an outbreak occurs.

ACUTE INFECTIOUS DISEASE

The acute infectious disease section of the Communicable Disease Program has the responsibility of tracking the occurrence of selected reportable diseases within the county. This section also tracks emerging infectious diseases. The purpose of this surveillance is to keep these diseases under control. The Marion County Health Department works with health care providers and clients to intervene thus breaking the chain of infection.

TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL
To Contact TB Control directly, call 317-221-2110

It is the responsibility of the Marion County Health Department to see that each individual diagnosed with tuberculosis disease takes the appropriate medicines for as long as the physician says it is necessary. This is done to assure the community that this person is not contagious and does not pose a health threat to the community. Identification and examination of tuberculosis case contacts is also done to be sure that there are not more probable cases as a result of the one already diagnosed. Additionally, tuberculosis skin testing is done for high risk groups such as individuals who are homeless, use IV drugs, reside in correctional institutions or are newly arriving foreign born to determine who might be infected with tuberculosis and get them into preventive treatment. If the infected individual is treated preventively then the chance of he/she becoming contagious in the future is greatly reduced.

Click for information on hand washing.

Click for Communicable Disease Control forms.