Introduction: Annual Summary of Communicable Diseases Reported to the Minnesota Department of Health, 2003

Assessment is a core public health function. Surveillance for communicable diseases is one type of ongoing assessment activity. Epidemiologic surveillance is the systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of health data for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) collects disease surveillance information on certain communicable diseases for the purposes of determining disease impact, assessing trends in disease occurrence, characterizing affected populations, prioritizing disease control efforts, and evaluating disease prevention strategies. Prompt reporting allows outbreaks to be recognized in a timely fashion, when control measures are most likely to be effective in preventing additional cases.

In Minnesota, communicable disease reporting is centralized whereby reporting sources submit standardized report forms to MDH. Cases of disease are reported pursuant to Minnesota Rules Governing Communicable Diseases (MN Rules 4605.7000 - 4605.7800). The diseases listed in Table 1 (page 34) must be reported to MDH. As stated in these rules, physicians, health care facilities, medical laboratories, veterinarians, and veterinary medical laboratories are required to report these diseases. Reporting sources may designate an individual within an institution to perform routine reporting duties (e.g., an infection control practitioner for a hospital). Data maintained by MDH are private and protected under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Section 13.38). Provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) allow for routine communicable disease reporting
without patient authorization.

Since April 1995, MDH has participated as one of the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) sites funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and, through this program, has implemented active hospital- and laboratory-based surveillance for several conditions, including selected invasive bacterial diseases and food-borne diseases.

Isolates for pathogens associated with certain diseases are required to be submitted to MDH (Table 1). The MDH Public Health Laboratory performs extensive microbiologic evaluation of isolates, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), to determine whether isolates (e.g., enteric pathogens such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli O157:H7 and invasive pathogens such as Neisseria meningitidis) are related, and potentially associated with a common source. Testing of submitted isolates also allows detection and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance, which continues to be an important problem.

Table 2 summarizes the numbers of cases of selected communicable diseases reported during 2003 by district of the patient’s residence. Pertinent observations for some of these diseases are discussed below. A summary of influenza surveillance data also is included. However, these data do not appear in Table 2 because the influenza surveillance system is based
on reported outbreaks rather than on individual cases.

Incidence rates in this report were calculated using disease-specific numerator data collected by MDH and a standardized set of denominator data derived from U.S. Census data. Disease incidence may be categorized as occurring within the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area (Twin Cities metropolitan area) or outside of it (Greater Minnesota).

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