Table of Contents
- 1 What types of questions would an epidemiologist ask an infected person during an outbreak?
- 2 What type of information would you collect in a questionnaire while investigating an outbreak?
- 3 What is an epidemiological investigation?
- 4 When verifying a diagnosis of an outbreak investigation an investigator should?
- 5 Why is it important to investigate an outbreak of a disease?
- 6 How do you manage an outbreak?
- 7 How does an outbreak come to the attention of public health officials?
- 8 What can you learn from an outbreak of disease?
What types of questions would an epidemiologist ask an infected person during an outbreak?
So the first step involves lots of listening and then asking some basic questions:
- What are the signs and/or symptoms?
- Is this an increased number for this area, time of year, or age group? Are the cases linked to a common source or agent?
- How many cases are there?
- The 5 “W’s” of any investigation apply here as well.
What type of information would you collect in a questionnaire while investigating an outbreak?
Why is it used? The questionnaire collects a standard set of information about food and other exposures for all outbreak cases identified during a multistate investigation. By collecting the same information across many different areas, data analysis is more efficient.
How do you investigate an outbreak of disease?
Section 2: Steps of an Outbreak Investigation
- Prepare for field work.
- Establish the existence of an outbreak.
- Verify the diagnosis.
- Construct a working case definition.
- Find cases systematically and record information.
- Perform descriptive epidemiology.
- Develop hypotheses.
- Evaluate hypotheses epidemiologically.
What are the 4 steps of an outbreak investigation?
Verifying the diagnosis and establishing the existence of an outbreak. Establishing a case definition and finding cases. Conducting descriptive epidemiology to determine the personal characteristics of the cases, changes in disease frequency over time, and differences in disease frequency based on location.
What is an epidemiological investigation?
The purpose of the epidemiologic investigation is to identify a problem, collect data, formulate and test hypotheses. It involves the collection and analysis of more facts or data to determine the cause of illness and to implement control measures to prevent additional illness.
When verifying a diagnosis of an outbreak investigation an investigator should?
Verifying the diagnosis through laboratory testing is also important, especially for new or uncommon pathogens. Investigators should establish a case definition by characterizing cases by clinical signs and symptoms and epidemiologic information related to person, place, and time.
What are the steps in investigating foodborne outbreaks?
Steps in a Foodborne Outbreak Investigation
- Step 1: Detect a Possible Outbreak.
- Step 2: Define and Find Cases.
- Step 3: Generate Hypotheses about Likely Sources.
- Step 4: Test Hypotheses.
- Step 5: Solve Point of Contamination and Source of the Food.
- Step 6: Control an Outbreak.
- Step 7: Decide an Outbreak is Over.
What is an outbreak investigation?
Investigating an outbreak/epidemic is a set of procedures used to identify the cause responsible for the disease, the people affected, the circumstances and mode of spread of the disease, and other relevant factors involved in propagating the epidemic, and to take effective actions to contain and prevent the spread of …
Why is it important to investigate an outbreak of a disease?
Outbreak investigations help us learn more about the causes of outbreaks. Officials can learn what germs are causing waterborne illness, what types of water are involved, and what groups of people become ill. This knowledge can be used to control an outbreak and prevent additional illnesses.
How do you manage an outbreak?
What are outbreak control measures?
- Cleaning and disinfecting food facilities.
- Temporarily closing a restaurant or processing plant.
- Recalling food items.
- Telling the public how to make the food safe (such as cooking to a certain temperature) or to avoid it completely.
What are the principles of outbreak investigation?
The investigation includes the following steps: establishing the existence of the outbreak; defining the disease; finding cases; describing cases by time, place, and person characteristics; establishing a hypothesis related to the mode of occurrence; testing the hypotheses; conducting an environmental investigation; …
Are there any investigations of infectious disease outbreaks?
Investigations of acute infectious disease outbreaks are very common, and the results of such investigations are often published; however, surprisingly little has been written about the actual procedures followed during such investigations ( 1, 2 ).
How does an outbreak come to the attention of public health officials?
Possible outbreaks of disease come to the attention of public health officials in various ways. Often, an astute clinician, infection control nurse, or clinical laboratory worker first notices an unusual disease or an unusual number of cases of a disease and alerts public health officials.
What can you learn from an outbreak of disease?
Even for diseases that are well characterized, an outbreak may provide opportunities to gain additional knowledge by assessing the impact of control measures and the usefulness of new epidemiology and laboratory techniques.
What happens if you are wrong about an outbreak?
This can be a lot of pressure when you are trying to make sure you gather all the clues and piece them together properly. If you’re wrong, not only do more people die, but you may implicate the wrong product, microbe, or disease transmission (such as the false accusation of Spanish cucumbers as the cause of the recent European E. coli outbreak ).