I had wanted to get this started up last year but was too busy between school and work so this year I’d like to start by covering some of the topics that appear in the Body of Knowledge for the Practice of Travel Medicine – revised 2017.  Reviewing the material that I compiled is what helped me to pass the Certificate in Travel Health^TM exam.  Additionally, I attended the review course, which I found extremely helpful.  I also had some professional experience from which to draw upon and I have a few references books:

• CDC Yellow Book 2018 by Brunette
• Oxford Handbook of Tropical Medicine by Davidson, Brent and Seale
• Medicine for the Outdoors by Auerbach
• MCQs in Travel Medicine by Colbert

In the end, though, I did not rely as much on the reference books (with the exception of the Yellow Book which I used extensively) for help in passing the exam. 

So, today we’re going to start by covering the general information at the beginning of the Body of Knowledge.  Additionally, rather than recreate the wheel, for a lot of the sections, information was copied directly from government or reliable websites as it was written in the way that matched the study outline and was just fantastically written as it was.  I felt like my role in studying, and in making the best use of my time, was to compile information from reliable sources so that it was available for me to review.  I hope that my compilation of information is of benefit to others.

Morbidity: “Any departure, subjective or objective, from a state of physiological or psychological well-being”²

Mortality: I couldn’t find a good definition in a book or online but mortality means death, mortality rate = death rate

Incidence: “The number of instances of illness commencing, or of persons falling ill, during a given period in a specified population”²

Prevalence: “the number of events, e.g., instances of a given disease or other condition, in a given population at a designated time”²

For example:

Hepatitis C can cause morbidity.  People can be nauseated, have ascites or abdominal pain making them feel unwell.  The sickness or illness that they have is morbidity. 

It can also cause mortality and they can die. 

The incidence of hepatitis C in the US was 4,798 in 2020.¹  That’s the number of new cases in 2020.  New cases is incidence.

The prevalence of hepatitis C in the US is estimated to be anywhere from 2.4-4.7 million people.³  It is more difficult to determine the baseline rate of hepatitis C than to identify new cases. The baseline amount of disease in a population is the prevalence.

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, August 19). 2020 hepatitis C. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/statistics/2020surveillance/hepatitis-c.htm

Last, J. M., Spasoff, R. A., Harris, S. S., & Thuriaux, M. C. (2001). A dictionary of epidemiology. Open University Press

Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP). (2021, July 9). Data and Trends. HHS.gov. https://www.hhs.gov/hepatitis/learn-about-viral-hepatitis/data-and-trends/index.html#:~:text=Millions%20of%20Americans%20from%20all,as%20low%20as%202.5%20million