SARS Outbreak Study 1

Learning
Objectives		   >   Introduction
to Study		   >   Student
Role		   >   Data
Collection		   >   Data
Analysis		   >   Plan of
Action		   >   Discussion
Questions

Step 7: Discussion Questions

Carefully consider the following questions related to your work. Write down your answers and be prepared to discuss them in seminar.

  1. Based on what you know about HIV and SARS, how is SARS different from HIV? (hint: consider the following bullet points to compare these 2 epidemics)
  2. What do you think you should do with your findings at the end of the outbreak investigation? (hint: think of how you want to communicate your findings to the public). Explore the website of the NYC DoH to learn more about the various strategies employed by public health agencies to inform the public of their work.
  3. How would the knowledge of the natural reservoir influence your proposed outbreak control measures? (hint: reservoir is any person, animal, arthropod, plant, soil or substance (or combination of these) in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies)
  4. Recent estimates put the economic cost of the 2003 SARS epidemic at more than a billion dollars. How to you think the SARS outbreak could have effected the economy of Epiville? What about the non-economic costs of this epidemic?

Intellectually curious? Read an article about stigmatization of SARS (from The New York Times).

Questions for the Intellectually Curious

  1. Based on what you know about SARS, what do you think is most probable, eradication or elimination of SARS? (hint: elimination is reduction of the incidence of infection (disease) caused by a specific agent below detectable levels in a defined geographic area and eradication is the permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide incidence of infection caused by a specific agent so that no transmission occurs in nature).
  2. Why is unrestricted flow of information between different public health agencies important? What are the implications of the delay in flow of information between different agencies?
Learning
Objectives		   >   Introduction
to Study		   >   Student
Role		   >   Data
Collection		   >   Data
Analysis		   >   Plan of
Action		   >   Discussion
Questions
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