Secondary Prevention – identification of a disease or illness before symptoms exist. Early detection is believed to result in more effective treatment. Examples include routine screenings, such as breast cancer mammography for women and prostate screening exams for men.
Tertiary prevention – what happens after a disease has been diagnosed. It involves treatment of a disease in order to prevent further complications or to slow down the progression of a disease. The focus here is on disease management and alleviating symptoms or pain. For example, a diabetic may use insulin daily in order to control their condition.
Endemic – When a disease persistently occurs in a specific geographic region.
Epidemic - An abnormal occurrence of disease, where larger than expected numbers of individuals in an area contract an illness, usually from a common source.
Pandemic – When an epidemic is no longer confined to one area and the disease outbreak occurs worldwide.
Common-vehicle exposure - the common source of contamination that people are exposed to during a disease outbreak. Particularly useful when determining the cause of a food related outbreak.
Herd Immunity – a resistance to disease that grows in a large group of people where the majority of the group members are immune to the disease. The group members who are not immune to the disease are less likely to contract it by virtue of the limited presence of the disease.
Incubation period - the time between the infection of a disease and the onset of illness. Some diseases will manifest symptoms immediately following infection; others may not develop for days or longer.
Epidemic Curve – a distribution of the times of clinical onset of a disease. This allows for determination of the incubation period.
Attack Rate – in an outbreak situation, the attack rate is found by calculating the number of exposed people who then developed the specified illness, divided by the total number of people who were exposed.
Primary case – a person who develops an illness as a direct result of exposure to the contamination source.
Secondary case – a person who develops an illness after contact with a primary case, rather than contact with the contamination source. This shows that the disease is spreading person-to-person.
References:
Gordis, Leon. (2009). Epidemiology (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier.
