Assignment: Disease Detective

Assignment: Disease Detective
Assignment: Disease Detective
Journal Details
Review the following websites and activities.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. Solve the outbreak. Disease detective. Retrieved from
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2017). Partnering to heal. Retrieved from
Create a journal entry of 200-250 words reflecting on your personal experiences or thoughts regarding the activities at these sites, the content and epidemiological methods utilized. Are you able to identify modes of transmission and implement interventions better with these learning tools? Have you ever participated in an outbreak investigation or care of a person during such an event? Share your insights to outbreak investigation and the use of epidemiology tools.
Epidemiologists are on the ground to evaluate disease outbreaks and other hazards.
Epidemiologists, sometimes known as “Disease Detectives,” look for the origin of disease, identify those who are at risk, and figure out how to control or stop the spread of disease or prevent it from happening again.
“Disease Detectives” are doctors, veterinarians, scientists, and other health professionals who specialize on a specific disease.
What are the responsibilities of epidemiologists?
Disease detectives start by looking for clues, just like detectives at a crime scene.
They collect data in a systematic manner, asking questions like:
Who is the one who is sick?
What signs and symptoms do they have?
When did they become ill?
What were the chances of them being discovered?
Epidemiologists examine the answers to these questions using statistical analysis to determine how a particular health problem emerged.
Disease investigators discover previously unknown ailments, such as Legionnaire’s disease and SARS, as well as the organisms that cause them.
The information gathered during the inquiry is used by disease detectives to give recommendations for controlling the spread of the disease or preventing it in the future.
Learn more about the Epidemic Intelligence Service’s disease detectives at the CDC (EIS).
The “research of the distribution and determinants of health-related states among specified populations, and the application of that study to the control of health issues” is epidemiology.
— An Epidemiology Dictionary
Epidemiologists are on the ground to evaluate disease outbreaks and other hazards.
Epidemiologists, sometimes known as “Disease Detectives,” look for the origin of disease, identify those who are at risk, and figure out how to control or stop the spread of disease or prevent it from happening again.
“Disease Detectives” are doctors, veterinarians, scientists, and other health professionals who specialize on a specific disease.
What are the responsibilities of epidemiologists?
Disease detectives start by looking for clues, just like detectives at a crime scene.
They collect data in a systematic manner, asking questions like:
Who is the one who is sick?
What signs and symptoms do they have?
When did they become ill?
What were the chances of them being discovered?
Epidemiologists examine the answers to these questions using statistical analysis to determine how a particular health problem emerged.
The information gathered during the inquiry is used by disease detectives to give recommendations for controlling the spread of the disease or preventing it in the future.
In public health practice, epidemiology is used for a variety of reasons.
Learn about the health effects of the agent, the host, and the environment.
Determine the relative relevance of disease, disability, and death as causes of illness, disability, and mortality.
Determine which parts of the population are more vulnerable to various health problems.
Assess the impact of health-care initiatives and services on population health.
Epidemiology
Term Definitions
The prevalence of disease in a population in excess of what is expected in a given time and area is referred to as an epidemic or outbreak.
Cluster: a collection of cases occurring at the same time and in the same location that may be greater than expected.
Endemic means that a disease or condition is always present in a population.
A pandemic is a disease or ailment that spreads over multiple geographic areas.
Isolation: a method of separating sick people with a communicable disease from healthy people.
Quarantine: a method of isolating and restricting the movement of healthy people who may have been exposed to a communicable disease in order to see if they get sick.
Case categorization
Suspected: a case that meets the criteria for a clinical case.
A suspected case with turbid CSF (with or without positive Gram stain) or an ongoing pandemic with an epidemiological link to a confirmed case is considered probable.
A “presumptive positive” test result indicates that local health workers tested the patient and found a positive result, but the CDC has not validated the diagnosis.