Difference Between Index Case and Primary Case

The index or primary case is the initial patient in the population of an epidemiological investigation. The index case may indicate the source of the disease, the possible spread, and which reservoir holds the disease in-between outbreaks. The index case is the first patient that indicates the existence of an outbreak.

1. What is a primary case?
2. What is the meaning of index case?
3. How do I track patient zero?
4. What is a case in epidemiology?
5. How do you calculate index cases?
6. What does epidemic mean?
7. What is meant by the index case and how is it used to limit the outbreak of a disease?
8. What is the endemic?
9. What is secondary case in epidemiology?
10. Who is Patient Zero for Ebola?
11. Why did the husband not get infected in Contagion?
12. Why is it called Patient 0?

What is a primary case?

The term primary case can only apply to infectious diseases that spread from human to human, and refers to the person who first brings a disease into a group of people—a school class, community, or country.

What is the meaning of index case?

The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study.

How do I track patient zero?

A possible method to find "patient zero" is to have each participant write his or her name on the board and underneath it the names of participants with whom he or she exchanged fluids in the order in which the exchanges occurred.

What is a case in epidemiology?

According to the Dictionary of Epidemiology, edited for the International Epidemiological Association by John M. Last, a case in epidemiology, is a person in the population or study group identified as having the particular disease, health disorder, or condition under investigation.

How do you calculate index cases?

The index case is identified in epidemiology studies by tracking down the infected patients to try to determine how the disease originated. For example, in the early years of the AIDS epidemic there was controversy about a so-called Patient Zero, who was the basis of a complex transmission scenario.

What does epidemic mean?

Epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area. ... Pandemic refers to an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.

What is meant by the index case and how is it used to limit the outbreak of a disease?

A History of Vaccination

They begin with an "index case," the patient who first comes to the attention of health workers, and then "map" that person's contacts and activities. That is, they backtrack along the web of interactions associated with the index case in the hope of limiting a wider outbreak.

What is the endemic?

1a : belonging or native to a particular people or country. b : characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment problems endemic to translation the self-indulgence endemic in the film industry. 2 : restricted or peculiar to a locality or region endemic diseases an endemic species.

What is secondary case in epidemiology?

secondary case: A person who gets a disease from exposure to a person with the disease, or primary case.

Who is Patient Zero for Ebola?

But patient zero in the most recent 2014 epidemic of Ebola was believed to be a 2-year old boy living in a small village in Guinea. The toddler may have played near a tree infested with a species of bats believed to be reservoirs of the Ebola virus.

Why did the husband not get infected in Contagion?

In "Contagion," Emhoff's husband, played by Matt Damon, survives the pandemic because he is immune to the fictional virus.

Why is it called Patient 0?

Where does patient zero come from? The expression patient zero comes from epidemiology, or “the study of the spread of disease.” In the 1980s, researchers worked to determine why gay men in Los Angeles were dying of a mysterious disease, later identified as HIV/AIDS.