Introduction Epidemiologic Services is part of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Prevention.
Epidemiology is the study of disease and disease patterns in populations.
The role of epidemiology has expanded from concentrating purely on infectious or epidemic diseases to include a focus on prevention, surveillance, evaluation, and relevant human health factors, including environmental and animal health issues. Epidemiologic Services helps the Division of Health provide core public health functions through such activities as data analysis, disease surveillance, outbreak investigations and control, and special studies on relevant public health issues. The office also provides support for occupational and environmental health issues. In coordination with local health departments, Epidemiologic Services investigates outbreaks and unusual occurrence of disease in Kansas. Epidemiologic Services staff provide information about managing diseases of public health relevance, such as rabies exposure.