Outbreak Toolkit
Providing the tools to investigate disease outbreaks, collect data and guide response activities
Overview
Introduction
The Outbreak Toolkit is an online resource specifically designed for epidemiologists and field investigators operating at the frontline of complex emergencies and resource-limited settings. It provides a comprehensive, up-to-date toolkit for investigating both infectious and non-infectious disease outbreaks and hazards.
By offering standardized tools, the toolkit addresses the critical need for data consistency and facilitates effective data sharing across teams, locations, and timeframes. It serves as an essential asset for public health professionals confronting the unique challenges of outbreak response in demanding environments.
Objectives
The Outbreak Toolkit offers a web-accessible deployment package for field investigators, with the following objectives :
- To provide a set of pre-defined and adaptable tools that support field capabilities for collecting, analysing, reporting, and interpreting data and information during outbreaks — leveraging new technologies.
- To reinforce epidemiological principles and practices by providing standards, templates, and micro-learning tutorials to support outbreak investigation.
The toolkit aims to assist epidemiologists and investigators in the field to conduct detailed outbreak investigations by minimizing time spent researching and locating key documents, and by arming staff with the critical information needed to guide investigation design, data collection, and response activities.
It supports early evaluation of the cause, severity, and risk of further spread of an outbreak by providing standardized tools for data collection and facilitating comparability and sharing of data throughout outbreak investigations.
A good investigation responds to the questions:
Why is this population affected here and now by this disease? Who may be at risk? What has changed?
WHO
- What is the age, sex, gender of cases?
- What are the norms and values or cases?
- What are the attitudes and behaviors that may have driven the spread of the disease?
WHAT
- What are the signs and symptoms?
- What is the differential diagnosis?
- What is the causative agent?
WHERE
- Where do the affected individuals come from?
- What is their geographical distribution?
- What are potential points of exposure/ contamination (e.g. environment, workplace)?
- What diseases are known to occur in this location?
WHEN
- When was the first case reported?
- When did the first symptoms occur for each reported case?
- When did the potential exposure occur?
- What is the incubation period?
HOW
- How is the causative agent spreading?
- How is the causative agent affecting this population?
- What is/are the models of transmission?