title: National guidelines for outbreak investigation: an evaluation study.
abstract: This paper reports an independent epidemiological study to evaluate the validity of the results of an official investigation into an outbreak of gastroenteritis at a university campus in Yasuj, central-south Islamic Republic of Iran. The official report of the outbreak by the Department for Disease Control at the provincial health centre found only 65 cases over a 5-day period, all females, living in the student halls of residence. This contrasts with a questionnaire survey of 963 students at the same university, which found 395 students (192 males and 203 females), living in residences and at home, who reported at least 1 gastrointestinal symptom over a 12-week period. Within this period at least 2 outbreaks occurred. Such a large discrepancy between the official report and the current study suggests that the health services and the public may have been misled about the proper response to the outbreak.
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School Health, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Islamic Republic of Iran. fararooei@gmail.com
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Fararouei
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Rezaee
authors: A Raigan
authors: AR
authors: Shirazi
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Naghmachi
authors: K Karimzadeh
authors: KK
authors: Shirazi
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Jamshidi
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Jafari
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005260:Female; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*