Use of the case definitions has pointed out some areas lacking in clarity. The document has been of such great usefulness to practicing public health professionals, as well as to others interested in public health surveillance, that there is a need to publish an updated set of case definitions. Infectious Diseases document distributed and discussed at the 1996 CSTE Annual Meeting. The process to revise the case definitions involved collating all definitions that had been revised by CSTE resolution since 1990. The draft document was circulated to the appropriate CSTE consultants several weeks before the meeting and their comments were discussed with CDC to reach consensus where possible.
Several diseases require further discussion.
The CSTE membership will be polled by mail in the near future to adopt final case definitions for these diseases.