ABSTRACT
Today, we are more adept than ever at identifying and characterizing the many strains of food borne pathogens. Shoe leather is a prized component of epidemiological investigations. Along with World Health Organization's (WHO) program providing broader access to diagnostics and emergency assistance are efforts to standardize and improve epidemiological investigation methods. The epidemic techniques and methods vary, but successful investigations share several key features, the ability to know something unusual is happening in the population, the integration of clinical, laboratory and epidemiologic information to define the problem. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) make recommendations to the states and these recommendations are sometimes reinforced by states desire to qualify for federal grants. The dream of many in public health is to automate surveillance to cover a broader spectrum of the population and overcome delays in formal reporting. Surveillance information informs health officials about what is usual and therein allows the detection of the unusual.
