Disease Detectives B/C

[1uwu1]

Last year, I remember reading somewhere that the ESs aren't allowed to ask for information on specific diseases (like the symptoms or incubation period). I was looking for something like that this year too, but I couldn't find it anywhere. So does that mean they are allowed to ask about specific diseases this year? Like I know the common diseases, but are the questions that ask about some of the more "random" diseases allowed this year?

[Havocgamer49]

Last year, I remember reading somewhere that the ESs aren't allowed to ask for information on specific diseases (like the symptoms or incubation period). I was looking for something like that this year too, but I couldn't find it anywhere. So does that mean they are allowed to ask about specific diseases this year? Like I know the common diseases, but are the questions that ask about some of the more "random" diseases allowed this year?

From what I've seen so far, if they are going to ask a "random" disease, they have always had this paragraph/essay of information about the disease which we had to analyze for information. Then we had to answer questions based on info from that essay/paragraph. So I wouldn't expect any random diseases on the test, and if they do ask about that they should provide something to dissect along with it.

[Tailsfan101]

Last year, I remember reading somewhere that the ESs aren't allowed to ask for information on specific diseases (like the symptoms or incubation period). I was looking for something like that this year too, but I couldn't find it anywhere. So does that mean they are allowed to ask about specific diseases this year? Like I know the common diseases, but are the questions that ask about some of the more "random" diseases allowed this year?

The main info you would want to have on an info sheet about specific diseases is causative agents (viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc.), as that seems to show up on many tests I've seen. You may also want to know some of the genera/species names for bacterial illnesses, specifically. While it isn't stated explicitly on the rules, this type of information is common.

[divyakris]

A restaurant in Carmel Valley, San Diego recently released a new dish — Big Pot of Stew.
To celebrate this new dish, they decided to hold a special event on November 30th where this
dish was 15% off. 340 people came to this event and 136 tried the stew. Unfortunately, a few
days later, the restaurant began receiving angry phone calls. Of the 136 people who had this dish,
96 fell ill with nausea and diarrhea. 4 people who did not eat the dish also fell ill. Disease
Detectives had to figure out if the stew made all these people sick.
Cohort or Case control?
Similar Q in one invitational said Cohort and the other Invitational says case control!
Thanks!!

[winchesetr]

A restaurant in Carmel Valley, San Diego recently released a new dish — Big Pot of Stew.
To celebrate this new dish, they decided to hold a special event on November 30th where this
dish was 15% off. 340 people came to this event and 136 tried the stew. Unfortunately, a few
days later, the restaurant began receiving angry phone calls. Of the 136 people who had this dish,
96 fell ill with nausea and diarrhea. 4 people who did not eat the dish also fell ill. Disease
Detectives had to figure out if the stew made all these people sick.
Cohort or Case control?
Similar Q in one invitational said Cohort and the other Invitational says case control!
Thanks!!

This is Cohort. The reason being is that you have information on every single person who ingested the food, and thus you can accurately calculate measures of risk, as opposed to measures of odds. If you don’t have information on every single person, a retrospective case-control study is more appropriate.

[poonicle]

Help, what do k,p,d stand for, https://imgur.com/EDCk2jR for context (nats 2019 question)

thanks

[haussmanndome]

Hi, I have a question: How do you identify the incubation period and the FIRST to be exposed from an epicurve alone? Like with no info about the disease itself? For example, you're given an epicurve and the question is when were the first cases exposed? Thanks so much!

[filkuisk]

When creating tests for Disease Detectives, how should the format be for part two

[Havocgamer49]

The best tests make up their own scenario that asses all of the parts of Part II.

E.g. make a fake scenario, give the test takers a paragraph about the disease and make them make the 2x2 table. Give the test takers a list of cases and make them make an epi curve. Make them list Hill's Criteria. Make them list the steps of an Outbreak. Make them write their own case definition.

Those are just a few ideas. Obviously you can also just list a bunch of multiple choice questions and make them answer those but the stuff I listed above personally make the test more challenging and fun for me.

[jimmy-bond]

Help, what do k,p,d stand for, https://imgur.com/EDCk2jR for context (nats 2019 question)

thanks

p is prevalence, d is duration I'm pretty sure. Apparently k is a factor for incidence based on the frequency of the disease (if frequency is high, k is low like 100; a rarer event may have a k value around 10000). The answer key seems reasonable based on these assumptions.

Hi, I have a question: How do you identify the incubation period and the FIRST to be exposed from an epicurve alone? Like with no info about the disease itself? For example, you're given an epicurve and the question is when were the first cases exposed? Thanks so much!

I hope this writer wasn't smol brain and said that the time when the first cases with onset of symptoms appeared was the same as exposure. I suppose that based on the scale, you can guess how long the incubation is. One with a month every increment may have an incubation period of 2-3 weeks, while one with morning, noon, and evening for every day of a week may be 6-12 hours. It all depends.