December 12, 2008

County Report

Disease prevention and control in Santa Clara County

By Santa Clara County Supervisor Pete McHugh
Special to the Times

Santa Clara County dedicates itself to protecting the safety and health of its residents. The County provides a vast array of services such as law enforcement and disaster preparedness. On another front, numerous County employees are hard at work tracking down and mitigating outbreaks of diseases and other health-related incidents that can pose a threat to every resident. This is why I want to share about measures the County takes to prevent the spread of diseases.

Disease Prevention and Control (DPC) is a core program in Santa Clara County that works to collect information and stem the spread of 87 known communicable diseases. DPC relies on health care providers, schools and laboratories to report possible cases of dangerous and notable diseases ranging from food-borne illnesses to HIV. Annually, DPC receives over 14,000 reports which are categorized by priority. Some diseases reported are merely collected for data and studies of trends while other diseases demand fast action and intervention.

DPC uses a method called contact investigation to discover who is at risk and what groups may be connected to specific illnesses. With 1.84 million residents in Santa Clara County, it would be impossible to interact with every resident that has a communicable disease. Therefore, DPC often interviews every one in ten patients in order to collect detailed data and background information. DPC accumulates data to pinpoint specific causes of diseases where clustering appears. For example, certain geographic areas may experience an outbreak while another group of people may see an increase of another different disease. The ability to group certain diseases helps DPC provide solutions for how to prevent and quell outbreaks.

DPC aims to identify every type of new strains afflicting the community and provide comprehensive information to physicians on how to deliver appropriate medical care. DPC regularly obtains updated information from the State and applies it to our County. Many brochures and flyers seen at health care facilities were assembled by DPC and then distributed to increase awareness. DPC works with doctors to create health kits for distribution to patients and educate medical providers about the trends and risks of certain diseases.

Many residents are probably not aware of the work it takes to stem the spread of diseases. Tuberculosis (TB), for example, locally accumulates 600 suspected cases per year. DPC works with the four Public Health Nursing regional offices in Santa Clara County to determine how to respond to each individual case. Public Health nurses conduct field work in order to provide specialized case management and treatment for patients with TB. Most often, a case will not be urgent and can be responded to within 72 hours. However, some cases require a DPC official to investigate outside of regular office hours.

Food-borne illness is another prevalent concern. When the number of cases from a single origin of food-borne illness exceeds ten, DPC works closely with another County department, Environmental Health, to investigate the cause of the outbreak. While Environmental Health is concerned with the origins of the disease among food distributors and preparers, DPC addresses the health of those who have fallen ill.

The work DPC performs to keep our community safe should not be underestimated. These County employees do a phenomenal job. Their good work includes counseling residents who feel reluctant to cooperate with DPC due to privacy concerns. However, it is important to know that all the personal information DPC collects is kept confidential.

The role of the County is to help protect the safety and health of our residents. Disease Prevention and Control does just that. Thank you for letting me share this valuable and reassuring information.