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Communicable diseases are most often the leading cause of illness in our country today
Knowing what type of communicable disease could prevent a health care provider from acquiring or harboring the
disease
COMMON TERMS
Epidemiology science that study the patterns of health and disease, its occurrence & distribution for the prevention
and control of disease.
Sporadic occasional or intermittent occurrence of disease with no specific pattern
Endemic- constant or continuous occurrence of disease
Epidemic sudden increase in # of cases in short period of time, an outbreak
Pandemic worldwide epidemic
Attack rate- is the number of cases developing in a group people who were exposed to the infectious agent
Morbidity rate- calculated as the number of cases of illness given time period divided by the population at risk.
Mortality rate- the percentage of population that dies from disease
Incidence- described as the number new cases in a specific time period in a given population risk way of measuring
the risk of an individual contracting the disease
Prevalence- reflects the number of total existing cases (both old and new) useful to assess the overall impact of the
diseases on society
Outbreak- generally implies a cluster of cases occurring during a brief time interval and affecting a specific
population
The Infectious Process
For an infection to occur a process involving six links or steps must be present
A. if any of the links are missing, the infection will not occur
B. Infection control measures can interrupt the process by eliminating one or more of the steps.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROCESS or CHAIN OF INFECTION
Six links form the chain of infection