common source outbreak

Examples of common source outbreak in the following topics:

• Occurrence of a Disease

  • Develop a hypothesis (if there appears to be a cause for the outbreak).
  • There are several outbreak patterns that can be useful in identifying the transmission method or source and predicting the future rate of infection.
  • Common source – All victims acquire the infection from the same source (e.g. a contaminated water supply).
  • Continuous source – Common source outbreak where the exposure occurs over multiple incubation periods.
  • Point source – Common source outbreak where the exposure occurs in less than one incubation period.

• Disease Reservoirs and Epidemics

  • There are two types of epidemic outbreaks: (1) In a common source outbreak, the affected individuals had an exposure to a common agent.
  • If the exposure is singular and all of the affected individuals develop the disease over a single exposure and incubation course, it can be termed a point-source outbreak.
  • Many epidemics will have characteristics of both common source and propagated outbreaks.
  • For example, secondary person-to-person spread may occur after a common source exposure or environmental vectors may spread a zoonotic disease agent.
  • Give examples of disease reservoirs and distinguish between common source and propagated outbreaks

• Bacterial Foodborne Diseases

  • Foodborne diseases can be associated with bacteria-caused illnesses in both animal and plant-based food sources.
  • Outbreaks of bacterial infection related to food consumption are common.
  • In the past, sporadic cases of botulism, the potentially fatal disease produced by a toxin from the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum, were relatively common.
  • Some of the sources for this bacterium were non-acidic canned foods, homemade pickles, and processed meat and sausages.
  • These types of outbreaks have become more common.

• Industrialization and the Environment

  • During the Industrial Revolution, environmental pollution increased with the new sources of fuel, large factories, and the rise of unsanitary urban centers.
  • During the Industrial Revolution, environmental pollution in the United States increased with the emergence of new sources of fuel, great factories, and urban centers.
  • A harder and high quality form of coal, anthracite soon became the primary source of fuel in the United States for domestic and industrial use.
  • Unsanitary conditions and overcrowding afflicted many American cities, where outbreaks of disease, including cholera and typhoid, were common.
  • The cholera outbreak of 1832 was related to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that attended the Industrial Revolution.

• Legionellosis

  • In the 1970s, the CDC investigated a large outbreak of legionellosis at Baptist Hospital that was spread through its air conditioner.
  • Common sources of Legionella include swimming pools, cooling towers, hot-water systems such as spas, fountains, freshwater ponds and creeks.
  • As seen, the major source for Legionella bacteria is infected water.

• Is everything recyclable?

  • Substances used in the medical and livestock industries, for example, can be unsuitable (some scientists believe that the mad cow disease outbreaks in the UK began when infected sheep carcasses were ground up and recycled as cattle feed).
  • Clearly, there is no substitute for research, common sense, and basic safety that errs on the side of caution when it comes to recycling.

• Chikungunya Fever

  • Both Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus have been implicated in large outbreaks of CHIKV.
  • Common laboratory tests for chikungunya include RT-PCR, virus isolation, and serological tests.
  • Human infections in Africa have been at relatively low levels for a number of years, but in 1999-2000 there was a large outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in 2007 there was an outbreak in Gabon.
  • Starting in February 2005, a major outbreak occurred in islands of the Indian Ocean.
  • A large outbreak of chikungunya in India occurred in 2006 and 2007.

• Modern Applications of DNA

  • DNA testing can also be used to identify pathogens, identify biological remains in archaeological digs, trace disease outbreaks, and study human migration patterns.
  • There have been attempts at producing cloned human embryos as sources of embryonic stem cells, sometimes referred to as 'cloning for therapeutic purposes'.
  • GMOs are a source of medicines and genetically modified foods and are also widely used in scientific research, along with the production of other goods.
  • In the US, GMOs such as Roundup-Ready soybeans and borer-resistant corn are part of many common processed foods.

• Finding Patient Zero and Tracking Diseases

  • The index case may indicate the source of the disease, the possible spread, and which reservoir holds the disease in-between outbreaks.
  • The index case is the first patient that indicates the existence of an outbreak.
  • He was vilified for several years as a "mass spreader" of HIV, and seen as the original source of the HIV epidemic among homosexual men.
  • In the eboloa outbreak of 2014, the Patient Zero was identified as a two year-old boy in Guinea who died on Dec. 2, 2013 of Ebolavirus during the fruitbat migration.

• Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases

  • The last infected human case of the outbreak occurred in June 2003, and there was a laboratory-induced infection case in 2004.
  • During the outbreak, the fatality of SARS was less than 1% for people aged 24 or younger, 6% for those 25 to 44, 15% for those 45 to 64, and more than 50% for those over 65.
  • The most common symptoms are chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, headache (often severe), coughing, weakness/fatigue and general discomfort.
  • Although it is often confused with other influenza-like illnesses, especially the common cold, influenza is a more severe disease caused by a different type of virus.
  • However, there was an outbreak in Algeria in 1994, with cases of WNV-caused encephalitis, and the first large outbreak in Romania in 1996, with a high number of cases with neuroinvasive disease.