New York State Department of Health Bureau of Communicable Disease Control Director's Subject Files

13855-84: Organized into two parts: 1. Subject Files; 2. Tally Reports. Arranged by part, then chronological by year, then alphabetical.

13855-12: Uncertain arrangement.

13855-20: Chronological.

The bulk of these records spans 1975 through 1982. During that time, the Bureau's responsibilities were statewide epidemiological surveillance (formerly called case reporting); statistical reporting; epidemiological investigation; statewide allocation of federal funds for communicable disease control; project development and oversight; proposals for legislative action and amendment of the state health codes; and policy development in these areas.

The files are primarily those of Donald O. Lyman, Bureau Director from 1975 to 1979, and Richard Rothenberg, Director from 1979 to 1981. The files consist of correspondence, memoranda, periodical clippings, maps, case files, statistical reports, survey questionnaires, and legislative proposals and bills.

Contents which may particularly interest researchers include black fly research; investigation of the relationship between influenza immunization and Guillain-Barre Syndrome (Polyradiculoneuritis); studies of leukemia incidence in relation to dairy herd leucosis and feline leukemia; rabies transmission during laboratory research; protocols for research with live syphillis bacteria in 1953; negotiations for access to vaccines and vaccine distribution policies; and legislation and public education efforts to increase immunization for communicable diseases.

Other subjects of special interest are development of an epidemic intelligence service, staffed by Glenn Haughie, later Director of the Department's Office of Public Health; regulation of summer camps' health standards; the Health Department's mobilization for services to the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics; and a 1979-1981 contract study of disease surveillance methods. There is also documentation of cooperation among Health Department bureaus, especially the Bureau for Disease Control, the Laboratories for Veterinary Science under Melvin Abelseth, DVM, and the Infectious Disease Center under Hassan A. Gaafar, MD. The latter two units are both sections of the Division of Laboratories and Research.

Diseases with which these files are concerned are: arbovirus (anthropod-borne) disease; babesiosis; brucellosis (undulant fever); cancer; chicken pox; enterovirus; equine encephalmyelitis; gastrointestinal illness; giardia lamblia; gonorrhea; Guillain-Barre Syndrome (polyradiculoneuritis); hepatitis; influenza; Legionnaire's Disease; leukemia; malaria; measles; meningitis; mumps; pertussis (whooping-cough); poliomyelitis; psittacosis; rabies; Reye's Syndrome; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; rubella; salmonella (salmonellosis); scabies; shigella (dysentery, shigellosis); smallpox; staphylococcal disease; streptococcal disease; syphillis; toxic shock syndrome; tuberculosis; typhoid fever; and venereal diseases.

The first part, subject files, is comprised primarily of reports of and the bureau's responses to these various diseases. Included frequently are the results of laboratory tests (sometimes from the Center for Disease Control) confirming or disproving the presence of the particular disease. In addition, files on Love Canal, the bureau's legislative efforts, and disease surveillance are also found here. In the case of disease surveillance, the bureau was particularly interested in hepatitis, food poisoning (salmonella), measles, and rubella.

The second part of the series consists of annual and semi-annual reports and tally sheets recording the occurrences of certain diseases, including chicken pox, brucellosis, conjunctivitis, gonorrhea, smallpox, trichinosis, and tuberculosis. The bi-annual tuberculosis reports are broken down by major metropolitan area (Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse) and by county, and comprise the bulk of this section. A small number of Department of Health annual reports from the late 1950s and early 1960s are also found here.

Seventy-nine rolls of microfilm found within the series contain information about annual disease outbreaks and are arranged similar to the first part of this series: chronological by year (though not alphabetical within each year).

13855-20: This accretion contains volumes of reports maintained by the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, 1884 to 1909. The records document diseases from which local residents died statewide in each given year. Diseases documented include typhoid, malaria, scarlet fever, measles, erysipelas, whooping cough, diphtheria, consumption (tuberculosis), pneumonia, cerebral spinal meningitis, and puerperal. These volumes do not document individual deaths; they contain aggregate data on deaths from specific diseases within particular geographic areas.

Microfilm is available for use at the New York State Archives or through interlibrary loan.

B2392Series B2392, Tuberculosis (TB) Case and Contact Register, also contains tuberculosis case and contact records.

13855-84: Alphabetical list of diseases (and year of outbreak) found on the microfilm is available at the repository.

13855-12: Transfer list is available at the repository.

13855-12: This accretion includes records from transfer list 92-65.

13855-20: This accretions was transferred under RDA 13855.

Epidemiological investigation files from routine disease surveillance activity have been separated to form Series B1071.

13855-12: Records may be restricted to protect personal privacy.

13855-20: Several of the volumes have broken bindings and need to be handled under the supervision of an archivist.