The region's public health unit has launched a new online dashboard that follows the yearly spread of various infectious diseases in Waterloo region.
The dashboard currently includes data starting from 2013 for 64 different infectious diseases including West Nile virus, Lyme disease and chickenpox.
It includes details like trends by year and trends by age and gender.
Arianne Folkema, an epidemiologist for Region of Waterloo Public Health, said their goal is to make health data more readily available for the public.
"We saw during COVID-19 pandemic that there was a lot of interest in this type of information and that was it was very useful to community members," she said.
"We wanted to continue that pattern and that trend of sharing and being transparent with information so that people could use it for decision making and planning programs, especially our healthcare partners."
She's hoping that being able to see the various infectious disease trends in Waterloo region will help the public more easily recognize their own symptoms and seek the care and treatment they need.
Noteworthy trends so far
Folkema said the infectious diseases being tracked through their new dashboard were chosen because they are identified to have public health significance and have had at least one case reported in the region in the past five years.
She said the number of monkeypox cases in 2022 are noteworthy, but the spike is related to a larger global outbreak.
Chlamydia and gonorrhea were two of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the region.
Syphilis also has been increasing, but that spike is also in line with what public health is seeing across Ontario.
The dashboard will next be updated on June 6, 2024.
New dashboard includes tracking data for infectious diseases in Waterloo region - CBC.ca
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