23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 1/7
Describing out
eaks
This workshop gives you an opportunity to discover some terms and tools that you should
consider using for your final out
eak report. Firstly let’s find a disease to work with. So that
I can limit the “bo
owing of answers” I would like you to work with the disease listed,
depending on the letter your surname starts with.
Choose your topic based on your surname
A-B: Barmah Forest C: Campylobacteriosis D-F: Dengue
G: Gonococcal H: Hepatitis A I-K: Influenza
L: Legionellosis M: Malaria N-P: Pertussis
Q: Q-fever R: Chlamydia S: Salmonellosis
T: Tuberculosis U-Z: Ross River Virus
1. You are to write a small feature article (exactly two A4 pages, no more, no less, 12 font,
single line spacing, you can have a third page for any references (optional -see below),
ut the graph you create must be included in the first two pages) for the local
newspaper on the disease that co
esponds to the letter of your surname (no
exceptions, you will have to do the exercise again if you pick the wrong disease!) The
editor wants you to include the following (do number 2 first but don’t put it first in you
eport):
2. A graph showing how many cases have occu
ed in the previous 4 years (do not include
data from this year as it may not be complete). You can get the data
from: http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm
Week 7: Workshop 2
Activities
Week 5: Workshop 2 Describing out
eaks (This module is
independent of group work)
Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2
http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 2/7
(http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm) . Go to the third hyperlink
“Notifications of Selected Disease by Month and Year” Find your disease from the drop
down box, and graph the data. For those who have never done this before, I have
added an appendix to this sheet to get you started (but please don’t hand in instructions
or the appendix with your Workshop 2 report!). Under the graph put a legend (like the
following for the graph I created for the appendix, but modify it for your data) e.g.,
Figure: Brucellosis cases in Australia from 2001 to 2004. Note the sharp increase in
cases in November last year. You may just supply a basic graph, but marks are given fo
choice that best displays data. Note: You may not have an increase in your data, in
which case your legend would say “The number of new cases remains constant all yea
ound” or another possibility might be “An increase in case numbers can be seen during
the winter months”. You may like to look at some of the other data on your disease in
order to describe age groups or distribution in states of Australia (for the body of you
eport), but one figure is usually sufficient.
3. How will your report start? Most reports are to make the reader take notice and want to
do something. Now that you have seen your graph, think about a possible way to start
your piece. It maybe “Health authorities are alarmed at…” or “Although many infectious
diseases do not occur as often as 50 years ago, we have failed to make any impact on
the number of new cases of Disease X”.
4. In the body of the report I would like you to include the following terms:
mo
idity
mortality
eservoi
mode of transmission
control
prevention
notified cases/1000 (or use 100,000 if that looks better) Australian residents per yea
(Hint: See the first screenshot below and look for the dot in the circle - you can put the
dot in the next circle).
You do not have to use numbers to describe mo
idity and mortality, you can simply
provide statements about how these terms relate to your disease (you will need to do
some research to see if there is any description of mo
idity or mortality associated with
your disease).
(For the first two terms you could try a Google search, or try the IDEAS site listed in
external links).
http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 3/7
No references are required but the document must be in your own words and not
plagiarised.
Workshop 2 Objectives:
1. Write a short piece of factual reporting suitable for a science column in the popula
press, such as the The Age
newspape
2. Create a graph of disease incidence and analyse the best format for communicating
trends in that data
3. Format the graph and legend so that it clearly communicates a message
4. Describe common epidemiology terms in relation to the disease under investigation
Marking Guidelines Workshop 2:
1. Attention to guidelines given in workshop instructions, including ability to create interest
from the reade
2. Choice of graph format that best illustrates data and attention to detail for labelling
3. Use of terms (at least 4/5 listed terms in the workshop instructions must be
incorporated).
Example of how to graph data
Say my disease is Brucellosis, then I call up the Brucellosis data (see screenshot). Note this
may be a little slow to call up, be patient (I think it’s worth the wait). Once a month the data
is unavailable while being uploaded so be careful, don’t leave this to the day it’s due!
The next screen looks similar to this (but may have later years).
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 4/7
In this example I wanted the data from 2010–2013. Using the mouse, I pointed over 2010
so that the a
ow changed into an “I” and held down the left mouse button to drag across
and down so that the section of the table from 2010–2014 was highlighted in blue (see next
screenshot).
The left mouse button was released (the selected text should still be highlighted). On the
keyboard “Ctrl” and “C” keys were pressed at the same time, the selected text was copied
in cyber space to a thing called “Clipboard”. Microsoft Excel was opened and cell A2
clicked (looks like next screenshot).
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 5/7
Note: The next step may requires a bit extra for older versions of Excel. Don’t “paste”
unless you are using Office 2010 or later, you need a “special paste” e.g., choose Edit from
the top menu bar and then choose “Paste special” from the drop-down choices. Then pick
text (see next screenshot) and OK.
Then type months in row 1. Your spreadsheet should look like this:
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 6/7
To make a graph, I highlighted from A1 to M5 (as the year totals look funny in a graph, you
can experiment to find out). Press the tab for Insert in the following screen shot and then
select a style such as Column. In Excel 2007, select Insert (next to Home on the Menu bar)
for Graph options.
I have selected a simple bar graph. After you have mastered this, you should play with
some of the options. You will notice a box around your graph. Click on the graph then do a
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 7/7
“Ctrl” and “C” and paste this graph to your newspaper article (word document) by doing a
“Ctrl” and “V”.
The basic graph is the next stage, but ask yourself: is this the clearest way to show the
data graphed? Is it easy to see trends with this simple bar graph?
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 1/7
Describing out
eaks
This workshop gives you an opportunity to discover some terms and tools that you should
consider using for your final out
eak report. Firstly let’s find a disease to work with. So that
I can limit the “bo
owing of answers” I would like you to work with the disease listed,
depending on the letter your surname starts with.
Choose your topic based on your surname
A-B: Barmah Forest C: Campylobacteriosis D-F: Dengue
G: Gonococcal H: Hepatitis A I-K: Influenza
L: Legionellosis M: Malaria N-P: Pertussis
Q: Q-fever R: Chlamydia S: Salmonellosis
T: Tuberculosis U-Z: Ross River Virus
1. You are to write a small feature article (exactly two A4 pages, no more, no less, 12 font,
single line spacing, you can have a third page for any references (optional -see below),
ut the graph you create must be included in the first two pages) for the local
newspaper on the disease that co
esponds to the letter of your surname (no
exceptions, you will have to do the exercise again if you pick the wrong disease!) The
editor wants you to include the following (do number 2 first but don’t put it first in you
eport):
2. A graph showing how many cases have occu
ed in the previous 4 years (do not include
data from this year as it may not be complete). You can get the data
from: http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm
Week 7: Workshop 2
Activities
Week 5: Workshop 2 Describing out
eaks (This module is
independent of group work)
Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2
http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm
23/04/2020 Week 7: Instructions for workshop 2: Out
eak: The Detection and Control of Infectious Disease (2007)
https:
mit.instructure.com/courses/70698/pages/week-7-instructions-for-workshop-2 2/7
(http:
www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm) . Go to the third hyperlink
“Notifications of Selected Disease by Month and Year” Find your disease from the drop
down box, and graph the data. For those who have never done this before, I have
added an appendix to this sheet to get you started (but please don’t hand in instructions
or the appendix with your Workshop 2 report!). Under the graph put a legend (like the
following for the graph I created for the appendix, but modify it for your data) e.g.,
Figure: Brucellosis cases in Australia from 2001 to 2004. Note the sharp increase in
cases in November last year. You may just supply a basic graph, but marks are given fo
choice that best displays data. Note: You may not have an increase in your data, in
which case your legend would say “The number of new cases remains constant all yea
ound” or another possibility might be “An increase in case numbers can be seen during
the winter months”. You may like to look at some of the other data on your disease in
order to describe age groups or distribution in states of Australia (for the body of you
eport), but one figure is usually sufficient.
3. How will your report start? Most reports are to make the reader take notice and want to
do something. Now