You are the public health official! Review the following case study and discuss

Question

You are the public health official! Review the following case study and discuss how you should proceed as an epidemiologist.

Case study: Over 30 children younger than three years of age developed gastroenteritis after visiting a local water park. These cases represented 44% of the park visitors in this age group on the day in question. Older individuals were not affected. The causative agent was determined to be a member of the bacterial genus Shigella. The disease resulted from oral transmission to the children.

Based only on the information given, can you classify this outbreak as an epidemic? Why or why not? If you were an epidemiologist, how would you go about determining which pools in the water park were contaminated?

Explanation / Answer

Yes the outbreak will be considered as epidemic. Epidemic is a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time.

Considering me as an epidemiologist, I would collect information from families having sick kids following by pathological analysis of the sample from the suspected pools for fecal contamination. Chidren under the age of 3 are more succeptible to get infected as their immune system are not as developed as adults. So to protect those children, I would first check the possibility of closing the pool till the water can be chlorinated and exchanged with fresh water.  

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