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Print | YORK REGION>Services>Public Health and Safety>Infectious Diseases |
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Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control |
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The Infectious Diseases Program protects people living and working in York Region from infectious diseases. To learn more about our services, click here. Listed below are links to some of the topics we focus on and information about these issues.Clostridium Difficile & Antibiotic Resistant Organisms (AROs) |
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Infectious Diseases Services
The Infectious Diseases Team of York
Education:
We offer a wide variety of educational in-services and displays. Topics include but are not limited to; Antibiotic Resistant Organisms (AROs), Outbreak Control, Influenza Prevention and Control, Hand Washing, and Communicable Diseases. If a special topic is requested we try our best to meet the needs of our audience.
Influenza Services:
Education
We offer in-services and displays when requested by the community on Influenza Prevention and Control.
Flu Shot Clinics
We promote the flu shot and offer Flu Shot Clinics during the fall, in a variety of locations to reach as many York Region residents as possible. The vaccine is offered free of charge. For more information on Influenza Vaccination please click here.
Statistics Collection
We monitor and collect data on influenza activity within the region, province and country.
Pandemic
We have contingency plans in place to manage an Influenza Pandemic and are helping community partners also plan for this potential threat to our community. For more information please click here.
Contact Tracing:
We contact any York Region residents who may have been exposed to an infectious disease to provide information, phone counselling, and to recommend medical follow-up if necessary.
On-call System:
A public health nurse or public health inspector can be paged to deal with any infectious disease/outbreak emergency after business hours or on weekends. For any respiratory disease concern please page the nurse at 905-953-6478. For any other concern (i.e. food borne illness, Norwalk
Outbreak Contingency Plans:
We continually ensure that systems are in place to deal with any outbreak affecting York Region residents. If we receive report or identify an outbreak of an infectious disease through our surveillance system in either the community, schools, LTCHs or Retirement Homes, we have policies and procedures in place to resolve it.
Support to LTCHs and Retirement Homes:
Education
We provide in-services and Train-the-Trainer sessions on an 'as needed' basis. We host an annual education day covering a wide variety of infection control topics and invite representatives from all LTCHs, retirement homes, hospitals, and neighbouring health units.
Guidelines
We developed the "Infection Control Guidelines for Long Term Care Homes" in October 2004 to provide information on all areas of infection control. The manual is reviewed on an annual basis and updates are provided to the homes.
Liaison
Each home in York Region has a designated public health representative who works with them on an ongoing basis to offer support and education around infectious disease control and infection control. We attend quarterly Infection Control meetings and offer support throughout the year (i.e. during accreditation, working through compliance issues, and helping manage outbreaks or ARO problems).
Outbreak Management
We work closely with the homes during an outbreak to ensure that; reporting to the MOH takes place, specimens get to the lab, control measures are implemented, surveillance is ongoing, treatment or prophylaxis is initiated (if necessary), summary documents are completed and the overall outbreak management is evaluated.
