Infectious Disease Surveillance

The Infectious Disease Surveillance program gathers information on infectious diseases of public health concern from doctors, hospitals and laboratories in accordance with Ohio’s Communicable Disease Reporting Rules.  Ohio’s list of reportable infectious diseases and reporting requirements, including timelines for reporting and surveillance case definitions, are included in the Ohio Department of Health’s Infectious Disease Control Manual (IDCM).

The most immediate purpose of infectious disease surveillance is the management and control of communicable disease.  Analysis of infectious disease surveillance data by time, place and person documents the distribution of disease and allows for the detection of outbreaks.  Disease statistics are available quarterly and yearly. 

The Ohio Disease Reporting System (ODRS) is available to state and local public health practitioners, infection control practitioners, individual health care providers and laboratories for infectious disease reporting purposes.  Additionally, laboratories can submit infectious disease reports through an automated process of Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR).

Mailing Address:

Ohio Department of Health
Infectious Disease Surveillance
246 N. High Street
Columbus, OH  43215

Telephone:  (614) 995-5591

Fax:  (614) 644-1909

E-mail: Surveillance@odh.ohio.gov

Last updated:  9/23/2008