Salmonella in the Caribbean
These Epidemiologic Case Studies are based on historical events and include epidemiologic methods that were practiced at the time. Given the historical nature of this content, the methods that are referenced on this site may be outdated practices in some settings. As some of the practices are still used, they continue to offer educational value.
Target Audience
Public health practitioners with knowledge of basic epidemiologic concepts, especially non-epidemiologists; e.g., laboratorians, environmental health specialists, sanitarians, public health nurses, veterinarians, and MPH students.
Learning Objectives
After completing this case study, the student should be able to:
- Describe the signs and symptoms, means of diagnosis, and control of salmonellosis.
- Describe how Salmonella serotyping can be used in public health practice.
- Given a disease, describe the desired characteristics of a surveillance system for that disease.
- Discuss how the inclusion of the laboratory in the surveillance of a disease impacts the characteristics of the surveillance system and the usefulness of the data.
- Calculate the incidence of a disease if given the number of cases and population size.
- Characterize a health problem by time, place, and person (e.g., perform the descriptive epidemiology).
- Create and interpret a graph.
- Interpret the measure of association for a case-control study.
Prerequisites
Successful completion of basic training in infectious disease epidemiology, descriptive epidemiology, study design, measures of association, and outbreak investigation
Language
English and Spanish
Level
Basic
Time
3 to 4 hours
Continuing Education
Continuing education credits are not available for completing this case study.
Developed By
Jeanette K. Stehr-Green, MD, developed this case study in collaboration with staff from the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre; Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with assistance from individuals within the:
- National Center for Infectious Diseases, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch
- Public Health Practice Program Office, Division of Professional Development and Evaluation
Original Investigation Team
The following individuals investigated the original outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis in Trinidad and Tobago: Lisa Indar-Harrinauth, Nicholas Daniels, Parimi Prabbakar, Clive Brown, Gail Baccus-Taylor, Edward Commissiong, H. Reid, and James Hospedales.