Communicable Diseases - Citrus County Health Department

HIV/AIDS/TB

Communicable Disease, Disease Control & Rabies Prevention

Disease Control

Hand washing The most effective way to prevent infection is good personal hygiene.

This includes:

Covering your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze.
Washing your hands frequently with soap and water; this is especially important after using the bathroom, before handling food, and after touching animals.
Thoroughly washing and cooking your food.

Disease Control activities include:

Monitoring and investigating reports of communicable diseases by working with doctors, hospitals, health professionals and the public to find the source of the infection and the mode of its spread, to identify those at risk of becoming infected, and to control the spread.
Providing reports to the State Department of Health on Reportable Diseases and Outbreaks.
Providing education and consultation to individuals and groups in our community such as the public, physicians, hospitals, day care centers, schools, nursing homes, veterinarians, animal control, and others.
For more information, call 527-0068.

Links:

Hepatitis

medical items Through a State of Florida grant, Citrus County Health Department is able to offer free testing for Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C; there are some restrictions on who can take the test. Vaccines for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B are also available. Call the clinic site nearest you for information or an appointment.

Animal Bites and Rabies Prevention
We provide consultation and treatment for Rabies prevention by working with Environmental Health Staff and Citrus County Animal Control to monitor and investigate Animal Bite reports.

Rabies is a preventable disease that is fatal if left untreated; treatment must be dog and owner taking a walk in woods initiated before the person has symptoms. The rabies virus is transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal, which may or may not be symptomatic. It is critical that all animal bites be reported to Citrus County Animal Control at 726-7660; these reports are then forwarded to the Citrus County Health Department’s Environmental Health Staff and the Disease Control Department for follow-up.