An infographic titled “What exactly is a health department anyway?” from the Water Environment Federation (WEF).

The infographic begins with the question “What exactly is a health department anyway?” and then defines health departments as “the government entities in the U.S. that implement wastewater surveillance programs and use the data generated by those programs.”

The infographic then goes on to explain that health departments are often categorized by whether they are a state, territorial, local, or tribal organization. Larger health departments are eligible for funding through CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement (ELC), while smaller, local health departments are the front line of public health.

The infographic then provides a list of what state and territorial health departments tend to do, which includes:

Plan
Set policies and standards
Assure equitable healthcare access
Respond to health crises
Collect and analyze health statistics
Support local health departments

The infographic then provides a list of what local and tribal health departments tend to do, which includes:

Conduct communicable disease control programs
Provide screening and immunizations
Collect health statistics
Run school health programs
Conduct sanitation inspections
The infographic concludes with a list of the types of public health professionals who work in health departments across the U.S., which includes:

Biostatisticians
Communications specialists
Computer technicians
Data scientists
Dentists
Engineers
Epidemiologists
Health educators
Laboratory specialists
Nurse practitioners
Nurses
Nutritionists
Physicians
Planners
Social workers
Veterinarians
Additional information:

The infographic also includes the following text:

64 STATE, TERRITORIAL, AND LARGE LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS ELIGIBLE FOR ELC FUNDING
3,000 LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS IN THE US

0-172 LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS PER STATE