Question

Primary cases, death 284

Primary cases, survival 444

Secondary cases, death 106

Secondary cases, survival 437

Calculate the fatality rate for primary vs. secondary cases, and discuss possible reasons to account the difference in fatality rate. Discuss what factors you would like to consider in surveillance

Answer 1

Ans) In epidemiology, a case fatality rate — sometimes called case fatality risk — is the proportion of deaths from a certain disease compared to the total number of people diagnosed with the disease for a certain period of time.

Primary case = 284/444 = 0.639

Secondary case= 106/437 = 0.24

Primary cases vs secondary case= 0.639 - 0.24 = 0.399

- Case fatality rate (CFR) is the proportion of deaths within a defined population of interest. Case fatality rate measures the severity of the disease that causes death. For example, among a total of 200 patients with disease A, 20 of them died from the same disease within 30 days; the 30-day case fatality rate = 20/200 ∗ 100 = 10%.

Similar to incidence rate, mortality rate and case fatality rate can be estimated by the number of deaths in a certain person-time. Again, a person-time rate is calculated from a long-term cohort follow-up study, wherein enrollees are followed over time and the occurrence of the cases of death) is documented.

Factors you would like to consider in surveillance:

- Budget

- DIY

- Wireless or wired

- Monitored or unmonitored

- Mobile App control

- Remote/ Cloud access

- Surveillance system

- Environmental factors

- Power backup