Get Outbreak Reporting Form - Other - Washington State Department Of ... - Doh Wa

A COVID-19 outbreak indicates potentially extensive transmission within a setting or organization. An outbreak investigation involves several overlapping epidemiologic, case, and contact investigations, with a surge in the need for public health resources.

Criteria for determining whether a disease outbreak should be investigated include, among others: the number and severity of persons affected, uncertainty about cause, and level of public concern. The attack rate is a measure of the number of persons affected by the disease outbreak among persons at risk.

Washington Disease Reporting System (WDRS) is an electronic disease surveillance system that allows public health staff in Washington State to receive, enter, manage, process, track and analyze disease-related data.

An outbreak of infection or foodborne illness may be defined as two or more linked cases of the same illness or the situation where the observed number of cases exceeds the expected number, or a single case of disease caused by a significant pathogen (e.g. diphtheria or viral haemorrhagic fever).

If you are a member of the general public and would like to report an outbreak, please contact your local or state health department. Contact information can be found at Public Health Resources: State Health Departments.

Guidelines for writing outbreak investigation reports. Date: Date of report. ... Half page or less: ... Nature of the problem and its public health importance: ... Contacts in the field and investigation team. ... Objectives of the investigation. ... Case definition. ... Case finding methods. ... Analytical study-design and rationale.

To determine if there is an outbreak, the current number of new cases (incidence) can be compared with past levels of the same disease over a similar time period (base line level). If the number is unusually large or unexpected for the given place and time, an outbreak may be occurring.

An infectious disease outbreak is an increase in the occurrence of a particular infectious disease above what is normally expected. For example, a cluster of children absent from school due to gastrointestinal illness could represent an outbreak if they are found to have the same infectious disease.