The Epiville Department of Health -- the site of your internship -- has been abuzz with activity concerning an outbreak of unusual cases of pneumonia deaths among patients in the Epiville General Hospital. Your supervisor, Dr. Zapp, gives you an assignment: acquaint yourself with the Department's surveillance and reporting systems and collect all available information about this outbreak.

Upon poring through the heavy folios in the Department's library, you learn a lot of information about disease surveillance. In Epiville, all hospitals, physicians and laboratories are required to report any suspicious symptoms that could pose a potential health risk to the general public. These reports provide the valuable clinical and demographic data the Department needs for monitoring disease trends and public health intervention. Your new colleagues also clue you in to WEPI1 TV, which is the best place to hear the latest information about what's happening in Epiville. As it so happens, Stew O'N eil did a piece on the new outbreak in last night's news. You turn to the WEPI1 channel website to read the text file of his report.

BREAKING NEWS

[ Read Transcript ]

Based on your own research and the newscast, you decide to look for the following background information on the internet:

• Information about SARS on the Epiville Department of Health Website
• Epiville Map from the Epiville Chamber of Commerce Website
• SARS case definition from the World Health Organization (WHO) Website

Getting information from books and the net is fine, but Dr. Zapp tells you that nothing beats the fieldwork. She directs you to visit the Epiville General Hospital to do the preliminary work for the outbreak investigation.