Thrusday, January 14, 1999
System would track diseases in county
Coordinated database sought
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Health officials in Hamilton County want to create a tracking system to help fend off the spread of communicable diseases.
On Wednesday, the Hamilton County Board of Health approved a three-year business plan with goals to increase citizen awareness and step up inspections to reduce food-borne illnesses. Included in the plan was a communicable disease-tracking system.
The program would electronically coordinate the disease reports filed by physicians, laboratories and hospitals within the county. The reports are now filed by mail and go to a variety of places, such as the state and the eight local health departments.
“We track over 40 different communicable diseases,” said Hamilton County Health Commissioner Timothy Ingram. “It doesn't help if we haven't got the report in time. The key to stopping the spread of a disease is to get the reports as quickly as possible.”
Many of the region's largest hospitals are in Cincinnati. With such a tracking system, a health official in Sharonville would know immediately when a report of a communicable disease that might affect its residents was filed anywhere in the county — such as at a Cincinnati hospital, Mr. Ingram said.
Cincinnati Health Commissioner Malcolm Adcock said the region has already made efforts to track communicable diseases in Hamilton County. What the county is proposing would coordinate reporting with an electronic system. And it would create a database that could immediately help hospitals and the physicians making the reports identify trends and outbreaks, Dr. Adcock said.
Most reports now go through the mail, which can take at least a day, Mr. Ingram said.
Sometimes, a disease will be out of its contagious stage in a particular person before officials are notified to take precautionary measures. Stopping the spread of communicable diseases requires quick response, Mr. Ingram said.
It has been estimated the tracking system could take several hundred thousand dollars to start up and operate. But Mr. Ingram said the system, which would be the first of its kind in Ohio, would likely receive grant money to help with funding.
He hopes to have the tracking system developed by the year 2001.
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