These pages provide necessary background information to learn about enteric illness outbreak investigations in a Canadian context. Each page includes links to relevant tools associated with the topic.
Outbreak investigation
An introduction to outbreak investigations, and an overview of the topics covered in subsequent sections.
Public health partners
A summary of the roles and responsibilities of investigative partners during an enteric illness outbreak investigation, including at the local/regional, provincial/territorial and federal levels.
Communication and coordination
An overview of communication strategies to consider for effective communication between partners during an outbreak investigation.
Outbreak identification
How outbreaks are detected and identified by public health.
Laboratory methods and surveillance
An overview of laboratory methods used during enteric illness outbreak investigations, and Canadian laboratory surveillance programs.
Case definitions
What to consider when developing case definitions during an outbreak investigation.
Case finding
How to identify additional cases and determine who may be at risk.
Questionnaire design
Learn about the different types of questionnaires that are commonly used to interview cases in outbreak investigations, and what to consider when designing your own.
Case interviewing
An overview of case interviewing during an enteric illness outbreak, including interview logistics, preparing for an interview, and parts of an interview.
Data management
Software options, general guidelines, and considerations for data management during an active outbreak investigation.
Line lists
Learn how to create a line list; a table that contains key information about each case in an outbreak, with each row representing a case and each column representing a variable such as demographic, clinical and epidemiologic information.
Descriptive epidemiology
Learn how to use descriptive epidemiology to describe the outbreak in terms of person, place and time.
Epidemic curves
An overview on what an epidemic curve is and what they include, and what to consider when making and analysing an epidemic curve.
Epidemiological summaries
How to develop and what to include in an epidemiological summary, in order to share information about an outbreak investigation.
Hypothesis generation
Learn how to use the information collected during the outbreak investigation to generate hypotheses on the outbreak source.
Analytic studies
Analytic studies can be used to estimate the risks of illness/disease associated with a hypothesis (e.g., a specific exposure). Learn about the different options available during an enteric illness outbreak investigation.
Weight of evidence
An overview of how microbiological, epidemiological and food safety evidence collected during an outbreak investigation is evaluated and considered to inform a Health Risk Assessment (HRA).
Prevention and control
Learn how information obtained through an enteric illness outbreak investigation may be used to implement various prevention and control measures, such as recalling a food product or informing and educating the public.
Post-outbreak
An overview of post-outbreak activities that take place once an outbreak investigation is complete, whether or not the source of the outbreak was identified.