Outbreak Investigation, Case Study Example

Questions for Dr. Caresolot

• If this is the outbreak of an infectious disease what data am I expected to collect from this patient?
• What do I have to tell the parents of this child?
• If this is the outbreak of an infectious disease, how do I report and to whom?
• Is surveillance necessary in this case?
• When should surveillance begin?
• What should I communicate to my staff and members of the community if questions are asked about this isolated case?

Other people who should be involved include:

• My supervisor – according to the chain of command my immediate supervisor ought to b informed and he/she is the person to further instruct me on what measures to take in this suspected case.
• Family members are the next set of people I would like to speak with because they could give me some specifics about the home environment and other essential details pertaining to the onset of symptoms and environmental sanitation of the Neighborhood

Other resources include:

• Data from the community concerning a history of outbreaks pertaining to the suspected case.
• The patient’s medical records if it could be obtained.

Other information

Other Information sought relate to whether there are other cases in the community and if   family members presented with the same or similar symptomsrecently.

Differential diagnoses

Differential diagnosis are lymphadenopathy, ulcerative necrotic lesion, HIV infectionand opportunistic infection infection. To reduce a number of irrelevant provisional diagnosis is to examine first the epidemiology of the provisional diagnosesin determining whether the age child’s aligns with signs and symptoms. Another strategy is to examine laboratory test results for each PD and rule out those which are extremely inconsistent/inconsistent with reach diagnosis