Dis. Det.

Background & Surveillance

(1) Understand the Clinical Approach (health of individuals) and Public Health Approach (health

of populations)

(2) Understand the roles of epidemiology in public health and the steps in solving health problems

(3) Understand the Natural History and Spectrum of Disease and the Chain of Infection

(4) Understand basic epidemiological and public health terms (e.g., outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, surveillance, risk, vector, etc.)

(5) Understand the role of Surveillance in identifying health problems, the 5-Step Process for

Surveillance and the types of surveillance

ii. Outbreak Investigation

(1) Analyze an actual or hypothetical outbreak

(2) Understand the Types of Epidemiological Studies – Experimental and Observational

(3) Identify the Steps in an Outbreak Investigation

(4) Identify the problem using person, place, and time triad – formulate case definition

(5) Interpret epi curves, line listings, cluster maps, and subdivided tables

(6) Generate hypotheses using agent, host, environment triad

(7) Recognize various fundamental study designs and which is appropriate for this outbreak

(8) Evaluate the data by calculating and comparing simple rates and proportions as attack rate,

relative risk, odds-ratio and explaining their meaning

(9) Apply the Bradford Hill Criteria for Verifying the Cause of this outbreak

(10)Division C Only: Recognize factors such as study design/biases, errors, confounding that

influence results

(11) Division C - Nationals Only: Suggest types of control & prevention measures for this outbreak

iii. Patterns, Control, and Prevention

(1) Identify patterns, trends of epidemiologic data in charts, tables and graphs.

(2) Using given data, calculate disease risk and frequency ratio, proportion, incidence proportion

(attack rate), incidence rate, prevalence and mortality rate

(3) Understand the Strategies of Disease Control

(4) Understand Strategies for Prevention-the Scope and Levels of Prevention

(5) Division C Only: Propose a reasonable set of prevention strategies for a public health problem

once the cause has been determined

(6) Division C - Nationals Only: Identify the strengths and weaknesses of a set of proposed

prevention strategies

This is for Part 2 (Outbreak Investigation # 3) https://www.cdc.gov/scienceambassador/nerdacademy/

epidemiological terms definitions:

A. Contagious - Capable of being transmitted from one person to

another by contact or close proximity.

B. Host - A person or other living organism that is susceptible to an

infectious agent under natural conditions.

C. Hypothesis - A supposition, arrived at from observation or reflection,

that leads to refutable predictions; any conjecture cast in a form that will allow it

to be tested and refuted.

D. Necessary cause - A factor that must be present for a disease or

other health problem to occur.

E. Relative risk - A comparison of the risk of a health problem in two

groups.

F. Reservoir - The habitat in which an infectious agent normally lives,

grows, and multiplies. Humans, animals, and the environment can serve as

reservoirs.

G. Zoonosis - An infectious disease that is transmissible from animals to

Humans.

H. Outbreak - a sudden increase in occurrences of a disease when cases are in excess of normal expectancy for the location or season. It may affect a small and localized group or impact upon thousands of people across an entire continent.

https://quizlet.com/_ccp8bz?x=1qqt&i=2zmu8h

Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals

Quizlets:

https://quizlet.com/8982266/disease-detectives-disease-identification-quiz-flash-cards/

https://quizlet.com/37404342/disease-detectives-scioly-flash-cards/

“A lot of the information can be found on this site: https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson1/index.html “

NOTES

Section 1

Epidemiologists → public health officials/researchers

Epidemiology → The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems

Study

  • Data-driven, unbiased, interprets data
  • Also draws on methods from other scientific fields
  • Described as [basic science of public health]
  • Relies on probability, statistics and sound research methods

Distribution

  • Epidemiology- concerned with frequence and pattern of health events in a population
  • Frequency - number of health events (ex. Number of cases of diabetes in a population) and relationship to the size of population

- Allows to compare disease occurrence across diff populations

  • Pattern - occurrence of health-related events by time, place, and person

- ex. Seasonal, weekly, annual

- ex. Geographic variation, urban/rural differences, and location of work sites/school

- ex. Risk of illness, injury, disability– age, sex, marital status, socioeconomic status

  • Descriptive epidemiology - characterizing health events by time, place and person

Determinants

  • They are the causes and other factors that influence the occurrence of disease and other health-related events
  • They assume illness does not occur randomly in a population but from an accumulation of risk factors/determinants exists in an individual
  • Use studies to provided the “why” and the “how” of events
  • Assess whether groups with different rates of disease differ in their demographic characteristics, genetics, behaviors, exposuseres
  • All to have effective public health control and prevention measures

Health-related states or events

  • Focuses on epidemics, endemic, and non-communicable diseases
  • Expanded to chronic diseases, injuries, birth defects, occupational health, maternal-child health and environmental health
  • Looks at behaviors around health and well-being like exercise and seat belt use
  • Disease is shorthand for wide range of health-related states and events that are studied

Specified Populations

  • Clinicians are concerned about the health of person but epidemiologist is concerned about collective health of the people in a community or population
  • Their patient = the community whereas for clinicians patient = indiv.
  • They focus on identifying exposure/source that caused the illness for intervention and prevention instead of focusing on treating & caring

Application

  • Involves applying knowledge for community-based practice
  • Use scientific methods of descriptive & analytical epidemiology with experience, epidemiologic judgement, and understanding of local conditions for diagnosing

Exercise

1) Comparing food histories between persons with Staphylococcus food poisoning and those without Determinants

2) Comparing frequency of brain cancer among anatomists with frequency in general population Determinants

3) Mark on a map the residences of all children born with birth defects within 2 miles of a hazardous waste site Distribution

4) Graph the number of cases of congenital syphilis by year for the country Distribution

5) Recommend that close contacts of a recently reported with meningococcal meningitis receive Rifampin Application

6) Tabulate the frequency of clinical signs, symptoms, and laboratory findings among children with chickenpox in Cincinnati, Ohio Distribution

Section 2

Discipline from WW11 but traced back many centuries

Circa 400 B.C.

Hippocrates explained disease was rational rather than a supernatural viewpoint- he suggested enviro. and host factors with influence development of disease

1662

John Graunt- London councilman who published a landmark analysis of morality data

  • Publication- first to quantify patterns of birth, death, and disease occurence
  • Disparities between

- males and females

- high infant mortality

- urban vs rural

- seasonal variations

1800