16- Epidemiology Flashcards
Sporadic disease?
A disease that occurs occasionally and at irregular intervals
Endemic disease?
Disease that maintains a relatively steady low-level frequency at a moderately regular level
Hyperendemic disease?
Diseases that gradually increase in frequency beyond the endemic level but not to the epidemic level
Epidemic?
A sudden increase in the occurrence of disease above the expected level
- the first case is called an index case
Pandemic?
An increase in disease occurrence within a large population over at least two countries around the world
Outbreak?
The sudden, unexpected occurrence of disease, usually in a limited segment of the population
Public health surveillance?
- protecting populations and improving the health of communities via education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and prevent ions of disease and injury
- methodical approach to identify issues
» review death certificates
» field investigation of epidemics
» investigation of actual cases
What can remote sensing and geographic information systems used for?
These are map-based tools that can be used to study the distribution, dynamics, and environmental correlates of microbial diseases
Remote sensing (RS)?
Gathers digital images of the Earth’s surface from satellites and from one biological sensors and transforms the data into maps
Geographic information system (GIS)?
A data management system that organizes and displays digital map data from RS and facilitates the analysis of relationships between mapped features
What are the 3 important statistical measures of disease control?
- morbidity rate
- prevalence rate
- mortality rate
Morbidity rate?
- incidence rate
- number of new cases in a specific time period per unit population
- # new cases during a specific time/ # individuals in population
Prevalence rate?
- total number of individuals infected at any one time
- depends both on the incidence rate and duration of illness
- (total # of cases in population/ total population) X 100
Mortality rate?
The number of deaths from a disease per number of cases of the disease
- # deaths due to a given disease/ total population with disease
Infectious disease?
- disease resulting from an infection by microbial agents such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, Protozoa, and helminths
Communicable disease?
Infectious disease that can be transmitted from one host to another
Contagious disease?
A disease that is easily spread from one host to another
Noncommunicable disease?
A disease that is not transmitted from one host to another
Acute disease?
Symptoms develop rapidly
Chronic disease?
Disease develops slowly
Subacute disease?
Symptoms between acute and chronic
Latent disease?
Disease with a period of no symptoms when the causative agent is inactive
These surveillance methods are used to recognize and measure infectious disease in a population?
- gathering information on development and occurrence of a disease
- collating and analyzing the data
- summarizing the findings
- selecting control methods
What are the two types of epidemics?
- common source epidemic
- propagated source epidemic
