The Cobb & Douglas Public Health Epidemiology program works with community partners to prevent and control the transmission of communicable diseases and conditions that may significantly affect the public’s health. It is our responsibility to investigate all cases of notifiable diseases/conditions as well as investigate all infectious disease clusters and outbreaks.
Therefore, if your facility notices a cluster/outbreak of residents and/or staff with similar illness, you are required to call the Epidemiology program as soon as possible at 770-514-2432. We will provide guidelines and recommendations to your facility and parents/caregivers. By reporting to Public Health, we can help control the progress of the cluster/outbreak more quickly to better protect the health of the children and staff in your facility.
Reporting to Public Health is mandatory per O.C.G.A. 31-12-2. For a list of reportable diseases, please refer to the Notifiable Disease Reporting Requirements.
Best Practices for Outbreak Management
- Fax a copy of your building lay-out if possible, so we can see where the ill residents live.
- If possible, obtain history from the first person identified as sick including did they leave the facility, have visitors over that were sick and etc.
- Do not admit any new residents, if possible
- Restrict visitors and group activities
- Keep sick residents in their rooms, if possible
- Use gloves when entering sick residents’ rooms and remove when exiting
- Stress hand hygiene (not hand sanitizer)
- Do not allow sick staff members to come to work until asymptomatic for at least 72 hours
We will be able to provide test kits for sampling of ill residents/staff to confirm the cause of the illness.