The recent war in Iraq presents significant challenges for the surveillance and control of communicable diseases. In early April 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) sent a team of public health experts to Kuwait and a base was established in the southern Iraqi governorate of Basrah on May 3. We present the lessons learned from the communicable disease surveillance and control program impl...

Some of the recent communicable disease problems in Hong Kong are summarised to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of how Hong Kong currently controls and prevents communicable diseases. Suggestions on how Hong Kong could improve the control and prevention of communicable diseases are made.

Introduction Preventing communicable disease spread is a primary objective for public health (PH). Reaching contagious people in a timely manner is essential to limit disease spread. Notifying patients of their infectious status also serves as an official reminder of social and legal responsibilities. The Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD) sends disease information and Notice of Pri...

Africa is facing a huge health burden of both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Cardiovascular disease is becoming an important cause of mortality in Africa. Unfortunately, statistics on the incidence of cardiovascular disease in Africa are not readily available and in many sub-Saharan African countries there is no information or only poor-quality data.

Dengue is a notifiable communicable disease in Sri Lanka since 1996. Dengue fever spread rapidly among people living in most of the districts of Sri Lanka. The present notification system of dengue communicable diseases which is enforced by law is a passive surveillance system carried out by the public health care professionals. The present notification of communicable disease system is manual,...

BACKGROUND In most health authorities in the UK, general public health physicians provide out-of-hours cover for specialists in communicable disease control. Although communicable disease control was part of their specialist training, there is no current formal mechanism to enable these doctors to keep up to date. The Faculty of Public Health Medicine has an active Continuing Professional Devel...

Contact with farming environment as a major risk factor for Shiga toxin (Vero cytotoxin) – producing Escherichia coli O157 infec tion in humans. The Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) consists of communicable disease authorities from various Australian Government agencies and state and territory health authorities, in addition to expert bodies and individuals in the specifi c areas ...

Reporting of communicable diseases to local health departments by health-care providers and laboratories is fundamental to the prevention, control, and monitoring of diseases in the community. It is common knowledge among public health officials that communicable diseases are underreported by physicians; yet the extent to which this occurs is unknown. This study was implemented to determine com...