Epidemiology

Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services (HCPHES) is actively involved in public health surveillance activities.  Surveillance is “the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of outcome-specific data for use in the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice.”

Several Texas laws (Health & Safety Code, Chapters 81, 84, and 87)  require that specific information regarding certain diseases or injuries be provided to the health department (state, regional or local). These diseases and injuries are known as “notifiable conditions.”

Health care providers, hospitals, laboratories, schools, and others are required to report patients who are suspected of having a notifiable condition (Chapter 97, Title 25, Texas Administrative Code

These conditions should be reported to your local health department, which investigates each case and then forwards completed cases to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) Infectious Disease Control Unit.

For more information, contact the Epidemiologist on call at (713)439-6000.