Review Article
Year: 2020 | Month: April-June | Volume: 5 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 47-55
Concepts of Field Epidemiology in Preparation for Response to Infectious Disease Outbreak in Rural Rajasthan, India
GV Fant
Visiting Professor, Public Health (Epidemiology & Biostatistics), Jodhpur School of Public Health (JSPH); Executive Director, Society for Epidemiology at JSPH;
Practicing Public Health Epidemiologist in Northern Virginia, USA
ABSTRACT
Recent World Health Organization (WHO)-India COVID-19 Situation Update Reports have documented the status of the epidemic. COVID-19 is an infectious disease outbreak of significant impact throughout India. There are other infectious diseases, also circulating in nature, that may or may not become a disease cluster that leads to an outbreak. Given the current situation, this is an appropriate time to review the concepts of field epidemiology to assist in epidemiologic efforts in response to infectious disease outbreaks. The main purpose of this review is to succinctly describe some main concepts of field epidemiology to assist public health professionals preparing to investigate infectious disease outbreaks in rural Rajasthan or similar regions in India.
Keywords: Field Epidemiology, Outbreak, Epidemic Curve, Epidemiologic Disease Control Methods, Team-work