Jay is a public health worker and is charged with developing an immunization tracking program for residents of his county aged birth to 21 years. Jay is primarily interested in measles vaccination rates. There has been a major increase in measles diagnoses in young children and adolesecents from the years 2005 to 2010 (10 cases in the county in 2005 up to 20 cases in 2010). The current chance of county residents being diagnosed with measles before the age of 21 is 1 in 200,000. Jay is interested in understanding why this increase occurred over such a short period of time.
- Explain how you can look at this scenario from both an individual perspective and a population perspective.
- What is the level of prevention indicated in the case study? How could the other levels of prevention be represented within this scenario?
- What are the incidence and prevalence of measles in this case study? Would this situation be considered endemic, epidemic, or pandemic? Explain.
- What are some of the possible explanations for the major increase in measles cases?
- What could be some of the ways to track immunizations within the county system?
- Explain how evidence-based practice would have a role in Jay's work.