Disease Surveillance Sharpens, Covers Cases from COVID to Contamination
A Health Department report out this week paints a largely positive picture of disease control in the territory, although it also raises some concerns about mental health, drinking water contamination and lead intrusion.
2023-06-02 12:57:35 - VI News Staff
The 2022 Annual Report of the Epidemiology Division of Health highlights the fact that health providers in the territory have significantly improved the rate of formal reporting of transmissible diseases, as is required nationwide.
“Accurate enumeration of notifiable disease cases is important for informing effective public health prevention and control measures, especially critical during public health emergencies,” the report states.
Between 2021 and 2022, it says, reporting increased 149 percent in general. Moreover, during 2022, from January through December, there was a 23 percent increase in the number of private laboratories and health facilities in the territory doing direct electronic reporting to databases.
“We are (now) in line with national reporting,” Esther Ellis, the director of Epidemiology, told the Source in an email, responding to questions about the annual report.
“Epi (the Epidemiology Division) has been working incredibly hard since 2014 (when it was established) to increase disease reporting and spent almost a decade now developing mutually beneficial relationships with providers so that reportable disease data is available, and that data is analyzed and benefits the providers as well as the community,” she said.