Epidemic Focus


Epidemic Focus


in epidemiology, the place where the source of the causative agent of an infection (a sick person or bacteria carrier) resides and the area adjacent to that place; that is, the area that poses a threat of transmitting infection to surrounding individuals.

The boundaries of an epidemic focus are determined by the characteristics of the infection and by the specific conditions that encourage the disease to spread. In typhus, for example, the epidemic focus may be an apartment house, hostel, barrack, or populated point—that is, the residence of the human host, where other individuals may come into contact with him and where infected lice may infest various objects. In measles, the epidemic focus may be an apartment house or a children’s institution—that is, the residence of the sick child and of other persons who may have come into contact with him. An epidemic focus may be multiple, with several cases of the disease found within a group (classroom, industrial plant, home).

An epidemic focus is considered liquidated when the source of the causative agent is isolated and treated (for example, after hospitalization), when it is certain that the disease is absent (taking into account the maximum length of the incubation period) and that there are no bacteria carriers among the individuals who came into contact with the human host, and when disinfection (disinsectization, deratization) has been carried out.

References in periodicals archive ?
Possible case of sirenomelia in the Tumaco-Tolita pottery pre-Columbian culture, 2000 years before the epidemic focus of sirenomelia in Cali-Colombia.
Highly pathogenic PRRSV first emerged in China and Vietnam almost simultaneously in 2006, and the epidemic focus was in the area between southern China and northern Vietnam (6, 7).
There is a discussion of a small new epidemic focus where evidence suggests mosquito-borne transmission, including genetic material identified from mosquitoes and evidence of protection from the use of mosquito repellent.
An area [approximately equal to] 4,000 [km.sup.2] near the western border with Serbia and Montenegro was the epidemic focus of the outbreak.

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