As we finish off week three and go into week four please remember that the Mid-Term exam is
coming up. Please go back and review content from the previous weeks:
Week One – Definitions
Epidemiology – Greek words epi, meaning on or upon; demos, meaning people, and logos,
meaning the study of. Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-
related states or events in specified populations and the application of this study to the control of
health problems.
Disease surveillance – The principal notification system in the United Sates is the National
Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS). This is state and local vital data for
monitoring deaths from certain infectious diseases (influenza and aids). Surveillance for chronic
disease usually relies upon health care related data (hospital discharge, surveys, mortality data
from vital statistics). Tracks both active and passive diseases. Identifies stages of the disease
within an individual and the populations, measures of incidence, attack rate, prevalence,
mortality rates, case-fatality rates and years of potential life lost.
Endemic – A disease or condition regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.
“Malaria is an endemic” p. 22
Epidemic – A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular
time. “a flu is epidemic” p. 23
Epidemic curve – the distribution of the times of onset of the disease p. 29
Herd Immunity – resistance of a group to an attack by a disease to which a large proportion of
the members of the group are immune p 26
Incubation period – the interval from receipt of infection to the time of onset of clinical illness p.
27
Immunity – not susceptible to the disease p. 26
Pandemic – Of a disease prevalent over a whole country or the world. An outbreak of a
pandemic disease p. 23
Common vehicle exposure – Refers to agents transmitted by a common inanimate vehicle
(food), with multiple cases resulting from such exposure p. 25
Single exposure – one instance of exposure (multiple exposures; food served more than once)
Horizontal and vertical disease transmission
Morbidity – The condition of being diseased. The rate of disease in a population.
Mortality – The state of being subject to death. Death, especially on a large scale.
Risk – AKA relative risk – compares the risk of a health event (disease, injury, risk factor, or
death) among one group with the risk among another group. It does so by dividing the risk
(incidence proportion, attack rate) in group 1 by the risk in group 2.
Incidence – a measure of the probability of occurrence of a given medical condition in a
population within a specified period of time. Although sometimes loosely expressed simply as
the number of new cases during some time period, it is better expressed as a proportion or a
rate with a denominator.
Prevalence – Being widespread and it is distinct from incidence. It is a measurement of all
individuals affected by the disease at a particular time, whereas incidence is a measurement of
the number of new individuals who contract a disease during a particular period of time. The
number of cases of a disease in a given time regardless of when it began. (new and old cases).
Mortality rates – A measure of the frequency of occurrence of death in a defined population
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