Outbreak Toolkit
Providing the tools to investigate disease outbreaks, collect data and guide response activities
Initial generic case investigation form (T0)
Outbreak investigations aim to continue the process of characterizing the public health event. The aim is to answer three questions.
What agent is causing the outbreak or public health emergency?
Which populations are at-risk? What do the person, time and place aspects of the data demonstrate about populations at-risk?
What control measures are needed to control the outbreak or public health emergency to substantially reduce morbidity and mortality?
In order for field investigators to rapidly understand the outbreak and propose initial control measures, this toolkit offers to:
- Support the collection of minimum Epi Core Variables for outbreak investigation.
- Help describe the outbreak over time (time), geographical spread (place) and persons affected (persons) to guide decision regarding the first measures to control the outbreak.
- Generate hypotheses about cause, source and transmission mode.
Understanding the case investigation form
- Variables with "*" represent the minimum data set of variables considered necessary to conduct the analysis by time, place and persons for rapid assessment of severity and risk of spread of the outbreak. Where resources are limited, those variables represent the minimum to collect with this form. (Source: Perrocheau, A., et al., 2021. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12206-5)
- For location of the patient residency, use Admin level 1 to 4 as set in the country. e.g:
- Admin 1: province, state, territory, prefecture, region;
- Admin 2: district, county, local government area, department, province, municipality
- Admin 3: sub-district, commune, zone;
- Admin 4: community, ward, parish, commune.
Prioritize the use GPS coordinates when possible.
- “Mass gathering events” refer to any event involving several persons. For example: a football game, wedding ceremony, family gathering, school attendance, church attendance.