Searching Louisiana Morbidity Statistics:
A Locally Created Database
The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Library in New Orleans announces the creation of a searchable Bibliographic Citation Database for the Louisiana Morbidity Report available on the World Wide Web at http://melvil.lsumc.edu/ris/risweb.isa link removed; it is also available from the Library's Homepage (http://www.lsuhsc.edu/library/no link removed).
What is the Louisiana Morbidity Report?
The Louisiana Morbidity Report is a publication distributed bimonthly by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health, Division of Health Protection and Promotion, Infectious Disease - Epidemiology Section. The publication began in its present form in 1967. The Louisiana Morbidity Report contains brief articles pertaining to incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases and reportable conditions, state surveillance data, injury and risk data, prevention news, disease outbreaks, vaccine statistics, etc. reported by the Louisiana Office of Public Health.
Where is it available?
The publication is available full-text online from 1997 to the present, through the Louisiana Office of Public Health, Division of Health Protection and Promotion, Infectious Disease - Epidemiology Section web site (select Publications and then select Louisiana Morbidity and Mortality Report) http://www.dhh.state.la.us/OPH/infectepi/default.htm link removed. For items not available full-text online, the LSUHSC Library in New Orleans houses the entire run of the publication (1967 - present).
What is in the Database?
This database contains citations to the published report. It is indexed using the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), without the attached subheadings.
Use this database to search for articles pertaining to your topic, then go to the full-text (either online or in the print version) of the publication after identifying from the citation, the year, month and page(s) that are needed.
How do I search it?
The database is searchable by using "Quick Search" to search for a single keyword (a Medical subject heading (MeSH)) or single keywords combined using Boolean AND, OR, or NOT connectors (capitalization and underlining are unnecessary). The "Advanced Search" allows you to search keyword phrases (many MeSH headings contain more than one word), as well as use Boolean connectors to search for terms in the non-indexed fields: title, notes and abstract fields.
What else is available?
Also in production are a database of LSUHSC faculty publications and a database of dental materials and equipment citations.
For further information on the Louisiana Morbidity Report Database, contact Kathryn E. Kerdolff (504-568-6102 or kkerdo@lsumc.edu link removed).
For further information on the Faculty Publication Database, contact Elizabeth Dean (504-568-6105 or edean@lsumc.edu link removed).
For further information on the Dental Materials Database, contact Elizabeth Strother (604-619-8507 or estrot@lsumc.edu link removed).
-- Kathryn E. Kerdolff
kkerdo@lsumc.edu link removed