Investigation of Disease Outbreaks

Abstract

This chapter reviews concepts associated with infectious diseases outbreaks, including disease surveillance, mechanisms used to detect outbreaks, and the epidemiological steps used to investigate an outbreak. It describes the role of the laboratory in outbreaks and includes examples where laboratory testing played a key role in the investigation of the outbreak. Outbreak investigations provide a unique opportunity for local authorities to provide enhanced education and awareness. Outbreak (or epidemic) intelligence is the process used to detect, verify, analyze, assess, and investigate signals that may represent a threat to public health. The chapter provides specific examples of how laboratories contributed to the SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak response. In the recent SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic, nucleic acid amplification and antigen detection assays have been used widely for virus identification from specimens, while WGS has been used for both the detection of and surveillance for emerging variants.