Assignment

Read the following account of a real life situation where the CDC investigated an outbreak and identified the infectious agent.

Article: Tracking a Mystery Disease: The Detailed Story of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS)

1. What alerted authorities to the possibility of an infectious disease in the area?

2. What agencies worked together to investigate the outbreak?

3. How did they determine that the culprit was a virus?

4. Once the virus was indentified, the next step was to identify the carrier of the virus - how did they do this?

5. THe researchers used a case- control study to understand the connection between the rodents and the individuals who became sick. In this type of study, "case" households ( those where people who became sick lived) were compared to "control" households ( similar households where no one became sick. Explain the results of this study

6. What was the name of the identified virus?

7. Was this a new disease?