A Plague Upon Us

You are an epidemiologist with the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. You met this morning with the department director. She is concerned about the return of certain diseases, long considered conquered, such as the bubonic plague and polio, as these diseases have re-emerged in Africa and India in the past decade. The director is confident that the public health standards in the U.S. would not make the emergence or reemergence of those diseases on U.S. soil likely. However, since the risk of harm is so great if the diseases did emerge or re-emerge, she feels it is important to conduct a study/investigation of this matter. In addition, there is also a concern about bioterrorism in the U.S. in which terrorists could introduce "plague diseases," such as small pox into the U.S. deliberately, and thus a study/investigation into the matter is doubly relevant.

Your orientation into this investigation is from the standpoint of a managerial epidemiologist, meaning that you are attempting to develop a strategic plan to prevent and control these potentially large-scale diseases. You are to draw up a preliminary memo that discusses five (5) primary objectives of managerial epidemiology and methodology to find the root cause of the reemergence in these third-world nations and five (5) possible techniques you could use to conduct this study. In your memo, be sure to be as specific as possible as to how you might address a catastrophic emergence of one or both of these diseases.