Public Health Trends-Communicable Diseases

Harper Crickmore

Health 100

Stephanie Fugal

Public Health Community Trends

            My sister’s friend Julia Hall, who is from California but now works for the State of Utah as an Epidemiologist, was the person I decided to interview. For specific information on the top five public health trends concerning communicable diseases, she referred me to the official epidemiologist website for the state of Utah. This is a mix of what she said and the specific data off of the website. These are the recorded highest number of cases of communicable diseases in the year of 2011.

            The number one communicable disease is chlamydia trachomatis infection. This disease continues to have the largest number of reported cases annually. In 2011, 7080 cases were reported. It is interesting that this is a high concern, as a big portion of Utah is Mormon. It was also said that other STDs affect the population a decent amount as well. Chlamydia has increased about 24% from 2007 to 2011.

            Hepatitis C also had a large amount of reports in 2011. About 963 cases were reported. But, many cases are hard to track because it can exist for years without having symptoms, so most infected people do not seek treatment. Nationally, Hepatitis isn’t ranked as one of the top communicable diseases as there were estimated only about 81.5 cases per 100,000 population. There is not much to do to prevent Hepatitis C except for IV drug/tattoo education. The treatment is very expensive for Hepatitis C, so most people cannot afford it.

            Pertussis, better known as Whooping Cough, was the next highest. There were 645 cases reported in Utah. This number was almost double the number of cases in 2010. This disease usually peaks every three to four years. This is a re-emerging disease in Utah. Utah is now seeing more cases in previously vaccinated children especially in the 5-14 age group.

            Then there was Influenza. What was reported were the number of associated hospitalizations with influenza. This is a seasonal disease, so only 490 cases were reported, as not many people get it year round. This number reflects part of 2012 flu season as well. Influenza hasn’t really taken off this year for Utah. Influenza strains are constantly changing and vaccines are the best guess at what will be popular in transmission from person to person.

            Finally, number five was Chickenpox (Varicella). There were 389 cases reported in 2011. This number does not seem like a lot, but that is because of the vaccination. Since the vaccination became available, there have been declining numbers of chickenpox in Utah since 2006.  More and more people are getting vaccinated each year so the number of cases is declining rather quickly.