Class 3-7: Descriptive Epi. Flashcards
This can be used to know if a location is experiencing disease occurrence more frequently than usual or more than other locations
Descriptive epidemiology
Frequencies
Counts in relation to size of population
Patterns of disease
Encompass 3 aspects: person, place, and time
[who,where,when]-descriptive epidemiology
Passive surveillance system
Relies on healthcare system to follow regulations on required reportable diseases-healthcare officials wait for reports to come in
Active surveillance system
Public health officials go into communities to search for new diseases/conditions
Syndromic surveillance system
A system that looks for pre-defined signs/symptoms of patients r/t trackable-but-rare diseases
Biosurveillance
Taking samples of human, plant, animal, environment )
Induction period
Time between exposure and onset of disease
Latency Period
Time between onset of disease and disease detection
The most CRITICAL element that must be defined/determined before any of the WHO-descriptive epidemiology can be accomplished?
The “case”-constant definition of disease that can be studied
“Case”
A set of uniform criteria I used to define a disease for public health surveillance
What is the list of reportable diseases called?
National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS)
Who writes the list of reportable disease?
Council of state and territorial epidemiologists (CSTE)
How often are reportable lists updated
Annually
Two types of Case definitions
Confirmed and probable (lethal-need to notice fast)
3 elements of descriptive epidemiology
- Who
- When
- where
Epidemic
Occurrence of disease clearly in excess of normal in a community/period clearly defined
Outbreak
Also called “cluster” An epidemic limited to a localized increase in the occurrence of disease
Distinction between outbreak and epidemic
Outbreaks[clusters] would become epidemics if they continue to rise above an average (usually an annual average)
Endemic
The CONSTANT presence of a disease w/in a given area or population in excess of normal levels in other areas
Emergency of International concern
An epidemic that alerts the world to the need for high vigilance (pre-pandemic labeling)
Pandemic
An epidemic spread world-wide (global health)
What is the epidemic curve?
A visual time-based depiction created during an outbreak/epidemic of the # of cases by date reporting
Common source or point source
Continuous OR intermittent;
Not person-to-person spread, derived from a common, single point source for the outbreak
