Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit - Media Release - August 15, 2022

Health Unit launches public health diseases surveillance dashboard

The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit has been monitoring Diseases of Public Health Significance (DOPHS) locally and across Ontario for some time.  Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public interest in case counts and disease trends related to infectious diseases has increased but care must be taken in protecting individuals’ privacy before data can be released. Surveillance and data sharing is an important way to help raise awareness of the risk of public health diseases.

Infectious disease data is now available on our website through a dedicated dashboard called DOPHS (Diseases of Public Health Significance). This dashboard will be updated the second Wednesday of every month with information about reported cases, monthly and annual trends, and case demographics. Data will be available for the current year and for years dating back to 2005 to identify trends over time.

This information is important to help us target prevention messaging for the public that is evidence based and for health professionals to use when consulting with their clients.

The dashboard will be located in the following sections of the Health Unit website:

• Health Statistics & Reports page  (https://healthunit.org/about/health-statistics-reports/),as well as under the Health Dashboards (https://healthunit.org/about/health-statistics-reports/health-dashboards/ )
• Infectious Diseases page (https://healthunit.org/health-information/infectious-diseases/ )
• Sexual Health page (https://healthunit.org/health-information/sexual-health/ )
• Hospitals, LTC/Retirement Homes page (https://healthunit.org/for-professionals/hospitals-ltc-retirement-homes/ )
• COVID-19 surveillance data is not found within this dashboard; this data is located here: Local Stats: Cases & Outbreaks - Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit

We are planning to add Frequently Asked Questions to the dashboard as we get questions from the public. If you have questions, email us at contact@healthunit.org or call 1-800-660-5853.