Significant Contributions to Public Health Final Assgn.Part - due in 20 hours

1. Draw a timeline marking the time each of the 11 blue men presented symptoms. Explain the point of mapping out the incident timeframe (i.e. why would epidemiologists need this information and how would it be used)

On Monday morning at 8 am the first victim was identified, then at 8:30 AM he was taken in to the emergency room. At 10:25 AM the second victim was brought in to the emergency room. The third, fourth, and fifth victims were all brought in by the same ambulance at 11:05 AM. 11:20 AM the sixth and seventh were brought in. At 11:35 AM the eighth and ninth arrived and at 12:00 PM the tenth victim arrived. The eleventh victim arrived at 6:45 PM.

This information is of essence to the interrogators and epidemiologists to help them identify the incubation period as well as the other logistics associated to the illness or the poisoning. The timing is also critical in determining the stages of the illness.

2. Describe the key symptoms and incubation period for the illness affecting the eleven blue men.

There are various symptoms associated to the 11 men illness for the incubation period. Heh main characteristic identified, however, is pains in the abdomen, the nose, lips, ears and dingers start turning to sky blue color. The color then spreads on the whole part t of the body after taking a certain period of time. A long last a severe state of shock is experienced leading tot eh patients’ unconsciousness. The incubation period of the illness is identified to be between 30 minutes and 2 hours.

3. Describe each step of an outbreak investigation as it pertains to this particular event, indicating all of the key points in the investigation (include how it started, why epidemiologists got involved, where did the investigation take the epidemiologists, who was interviewed, what/who were the potential culprits identified during the investigation)

The doctors, in investigating the disease, have to go through carious steps. The first step is interrogating the victims to identify the details of the disease. First the victim is helped to regain consciousness and then asked questions to get to the bottom of the cause of the illness. Epidemiology is involved in investigation of the 11 men cases who visited the clinic the same day suffering the same symptoms of illness or poisoning that were abnormal. Blood samples withdrawn from the 11 men were used to analyze for any foreign substances or bodies in the blood or any similar causes that could be identified to lead to the illness. The interrogators identifies the main similarity between the activities of the 11 men to be a restaurant. After investigation in the restaurant, samples of sat pointed to sodium nitrite to be present in the cooking sat used to cook the oatmeal that was consumed by the men. Excess sodium nitrite led to the poisoning of the blood of the eleven men leading to the symptoms.

4. Identify three questions that Dr. Greenberg and Dr. Pellitteri asked the patients. Explain why these three questions were relevant.

What meal did you have last?

IN which restaurant did you take the meal?

Do you have any past health problems or a history of health complications such as blood pressure, allergy etc?

This questions were important to provide the doctor with adequate information to deal with the situation at hand. From the information, the doctor could deduce the cause of the sudden illness. For example, in the case of the 11 men, the doctors were able to come up with various similarities after interrogating the 11 men that pointed to the cause of the poisoning within the restaurant.

5. Identify three questions that the epidemiologists asked the Eclipse Cafeteria employees. Explain why these three questions were relevant.

What are the ingredients used in cooking the oatmeal?

For how long does the oatmeal stay before being completely sold?

How often do you cook the oatmeal?

The first question was important to help the epidemiologists to identify the contents of the meals that could have led to the poisoning hence identify the specific components within the ingredients. The second question was to find the state of the oatmeal before consumption while the last question helped to identify the frequency of sale of the meal hence the extent of the cases and the freshness of the meal at time of consumption.

6. Identify the final culprit and how it was discovered.

The restaurant was identified as the final culprit. This was after the epidemiologists identifies that the restaurant used salt that was contaminated with sodium nitrite. As such, the restaurant was found to be the main cause of the poisoning that led to the illness. All 11 men had consumed oatmeal prepared using the salt lading to the conditions experienced.

7. Explain why were these specific men more affected than other people who ate in the cafeteria?

The men were largely affected since they used oatmeal prepared using the salt and on top of that added table salt to the meal leading to more poisoning of the body using this salt. It is evident that the additional salt led to higher levels of intoxication by the sodium nitrite.

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