Skip to Content
Communicable and Environmental Disease Services

Surveillance and Epidemiology

Surveillance and epidemiology, tracking infectious disease incidence and prevalence, is at the heart of the work of CEDS. The reporting and tracking of cases of illness is essential to knowing who is involved in disease and where the problems are occurring. Examining descriptive epidemiologic data over time is the foundation for knowing where prevention and control efforts need to be focused.

CEDS is assigned the responsibility of detecting, preventing, and controlling infectious and environmentally-related illnesses of public health significance. A unique attribute of infectious diseases is that they can often be prevented, and thus, efforts to that end result in lower expenditures for health care and less personal discomfort and pain. Environmentally-related illnesses are often the result of the interaction of external physical and chemical factors with other variables, including lifestyle, nutrition, and genetics. Detecting, preventing, and controlling both infectious and environmental disease provides enormous financial and emotional benefits to the citizens of Tennessee.

One important goal of the surveillance and epidemiology program is assisting providers, laboratorians, and infection control practitioners with reporting of notifiable diseases. Regional and local health departments are the foundation of this reporting; the PH1600 form is used to report a case that is on the List of Notifable Diseases. Case Definitions assist providers in determining whether or not a case is reportable.

A number of reports designed by CEDS staff provide health care organizations and providers, government and regulatory agencies, and other concerned individuals and groups, with important statistical information about potentially preventable diseases. These include the CEDS Annual Reports, EIP Bulletin, and Tennessee EPI News. These help assure that involved individuals and organizations have access to the same information. The annual report also provides an assessment of the efforts undertaken by CEDS over a period of years. Other sources of surveillance data on the CEDS website include the Immunization Program, the Emerging Infections Program, the Tuberculosis Program, the West Nile Virus Program, and Disease Interactive Reports.

Surveillance is dependent on reporting and the assistance of personnel in local and regional health departments, physicians, infection control practitioners, and laboratory staff. Many committed health care professionals throughout Tennessee contribute to the ongoing reporting of disease.