Date
of Last Review 9/5/08
SME: Infection Control Manager
This topic provides guidance to the Infection Control Practitioner and the Infection
Control Committee in the investigation of a suspected outbreak of a communicable
disease.
This table lists who to notify for each type of disease outbreak:
Type of Outbreak |
Description |
Who to Notify | ||||||
Community Acquired |
Examples: Possible foodborne outbreak, measles |
Health authorities | ||||||
Nosocomial |
Investigated when two or more cases appear to be epidemiologically related |
|
The Infection Control Committee follows these steps to investigate a suspected outbreak of communicable disease:
Step |
Action | ||||||||||||
1 |
Define a case based on the following common factors:
| ||||||||||||
2 |
Define the population at risk using the following information:
| ||||||||||||
3 |
Define the scope of the problem. Examples:
| ||||||||||||
4 |
Derive an epidemic curve. | ||||||||||||
5 |
Issue an initial report to the hospital committees. | ||||||||||||
6 |
Institute interventions. |
The Infection Control Committee follows these steps to coordinate action after investigating a suspected outbreak of communicable disease:
Step |
Action |
1 |
Make a hypothesis based on epidemiological and clinical data. |
2 |
Test the hypothesis using the appropriate statistical methods and controls. |
3 |
Issue a progress report to the hospital committees. |
4 |
Report the situation to the outside authorities. In compliance with: The Communicable Disease Report statutes. |
5 |
Communicate any changes necessitated by the outbreak analysis to the appropriate departments. |
6 |
Issue a concluding report to the hospital committees. |
The Joint Commission : Surveillance, Prevention, and Control of Infection
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