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How To Solve An Outbreak (The Game)

The document summarizes the CDC's "Solve the Outbreak" game, which allows players to take on the role of an epidemiologist solving outbreaks. It describes how the game teaches players to analyze data, identify transmission patterns, and determine the best course of action. It also emphasizes the importance of carefully evaluating evidence before releasing information to the public. Players must make choices at each step to diagnose the problem, stop transmission, and communicate findings. The game provides real-world epidemiology training to prepare players for solving actual disease outbreaks.

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Alina Forray
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74 views4 pages

How To Solve An Outbreak (The Game)

The document summarizes the CDC's "Solve the Outbreak" game, which allows players to take on the role of an epidemiologist solving outbreaks. It describes how the game teaches players to analyze data, identify transmission patterns, and determine the best course of action. It also emphasizes the importance of carefully evaluating evidence before releasing information to the public. Players must make choices at each step to diagnose the problem, stop transmission, and communicate findings. The game provides real-world epidemiology training to prepare players for solving actual disease outbreaks.

Uploaded by

Alina Forray
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Models and Mechanisms of Public Health

Chapter 13: Solve the Outbreak – The CDC Game

How To Solve An Outbreak (The Game)


The highlights of an epidemiologist’s job are to study ways to help
prevent public health problems or work in communities by collecting and
analyzing data about a disease that is a icting the local area. Lastly, they
relay information back to the public about their ndings (Solve the
Outbreak, CDC). These abilities are very useful when an epidemiologist
is called in to help solve disease and non-disease related health issues
within a community. These health issues include but are not limited to
epidemics, pandemics, and outbreaks. An epidemic is when the
expected number of disease cases, injuries, or other poor health
problems rapidly rises throughout a population or region. Like epidemics,
an outbreak is when the number of disease/illness cases are greater
than what was expected. Outbreaks can be isolated or spread across a
vast swath of land (The Epidemiological Process). Pandemics are
considered to be larger epidemics. They a ict large populations and are
present across several countries (Solve the Outbreak, CDC).
Epidemiologists employ a vast amount of di erent skills when they are
needed to help solve an outbreak.

To show how complex solving an outbreak can really be, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a game that lets people
step into the shoes of an epidemiologist. The game, simply titled, “Solve
the Outbreak” has two levels and twenty missions between the two.
Every mission is unique and requires you to analyze data provided and
then decide what the correct course of action is to continue on with the
mission. There are ve parts to each mission, each part addresses a
di erent aspect of what needs to happen to successfully diagnose the
illness. This includes nding out what is causing the disease, illness, or
problem within the community, how it’s spreading, the impact it’s having
on the a icted population, and what can be done to solve the problem
and prevent further exposures (Solve the Outbreak, CDC). The game
gives you three choices of action for each section of the mission. The
game teaches you useful information about detecting all types of
infectious diseases.

The game gives you data that you have to read and carefully analyze to
help you choose the right step in solving the mission. For example, the
rst mission titled “Breathless in the Midwest”, shows you a graph of the
attack rate for di erent activities that are suspected to be the cause of
the outbreak. The attack rate is de ned as the number of sick people
divided by the number of people who took part in a certain action. It
compares the participation in di erent activities with people who are sick
and people who aren’t. Epidemiologists want to look for an activity with a
high percentage of sick people and a low percentage of healthy
individuals (Solve the Outbreak, CDC). The game also shows you how to
read epidemic curves. Epi-curves are graphs that depict the incidence of
a disease over a certain amount of time. It graphs the growth of the
epidemic or outbreak (Solve the Outbreak, CDC). Being able to read and
understand the data that is provided helps makes picking a course of
action easier.

One of the requirements that must be met when solving an outbreak is


conveying information about the problem to the public (The
Epidemiological Process). The game acknowledges this crucial step as
well. In the mission “Case of the Conference Blues” there is a suspected
E. coli outbreak at a hotel conference. After it is con rmed to be E. coli,
the game presents the player with three options. They are to test the
leftover spinach, recommend a recall, and release a statement to the
public that spinach is contaminated (Solve the Outbreak, CDC). The
correct answer is to test the leftover spinach, the other two are wrong
because they are considered to be rushed actions. The game explains
that choosing the other options are premature due not knowing the
exactly if it’s the spinach or cross contamination, and because it could
cause problems among the public if false information was released
(Solve the Outbreak, CDC). Knowing when and when not to present the
public with information is key in keeping peace in the community.

So how do you solve an outbreak? In the sense of the game and an


actual outbreak, the required knowledge and skills overlap. To solve an
outbreak, one must be able to carefully and critically analyze data that is
collected about the a icted population. Additionally, an epidemiologist
must be able to understand the problem at hand and make the correct
decision based on the evidence to keep the public safe from the
disease/illness. Lastly, after all the data is collected and deciphered and
the right course of action is chosen, one must be able to transparently
relay information to the public about how they can beat the disease and
how to prevent it from appearing again.
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