Epidemic Investigation

One of the key roles of public health is to manage outbreaks that endanger the health of the population. The nature of an outbreak can be due to a wide range of causes, and a variety of approaches to detection of epidemics are possible, but the main points are very similar for all outbreaks and are described in this article. The first challenge is to notice an increase in cases, and this is followed by a confirmation that there is indeed an outbreak. Based on descriptive epidemiology, a case definition and a hypothesis are developed, which are preferably confirmed by at least an epidemiologic study. Other aspects of investigation described in this article are the organization of the outbreak investigation, public health action, and the importance of communication.