Disease Detectives B/C

[penelope]

I'm in tenth grade and competing in C for the first time, although I've been doing DD since I joined up in fifth grade. I feel out of my depth in DD for the first time in my life. The C Div tests require a lot of knowledge that I don't have and don't know where to look for. Can somebody recommend some good resources for updating my knowledge to C Div level? I don't know anything about some of the more sophisticated statistical calculations such as Fisher's Exact Test, I don't know anything about lab criteria like whether Staphylococcus is Gram-negative or -positive, and I have no idea whether the outbreak in Springfield ten years ago was E. coli or listeria. Help!

For the statistic part go through the guide uploaded on the soinc national site.

Minor historical events and very disease-specific things I feel shouldn't really be a large part of this event, but I've decided to put them in my notes anyway because test writers can be lazy / don't understand the event. I'd recommend making a table including basic information on a lot of the common diseases, namely symptoms, mode of transmission, and type (bacteria/virus etc.). When the topic was foodborne I also included some more in depth info on each of those such as gram+/-, method of treatment etc. but since that's not the focus now you (hopefully) shouldn't have to worry about it. However, I would recommend being familiar with lab practice in general, e.g. what the gram test is etc. Checking the validity of the diagnoses is an important part of any outbreak investigation, and often times the cases are sorted based on the results of laboratory tests into categories such as "suspected", "probable", and "confirmed." Understanding some of the basic principles going on here can only help you. I can't think of anything offhand that does a good job going into this, but if I find something I'll post it here.

Thanks so much! I'll definitely do that. I get the feeling that my cheat sheet is going to be crammed full of statistics and disease facts this year. Again, thank you!!

[hmath729]

Hi, this is my first year in DD. I'm Div B. Our team might be going to state since we placed 7th in regionals. Is there anything super-important that you think I should study?
Events in regionals
Anatomy = 5th
Disease Detectives = 5th
Heredity = 8th

[Flavorflav]

I'd recommend making a table including basic information on a lot of the common diseases, namely symptoms, mode of transmission, and type (bacteria/virus etc.). When the topic was foodborne I also included some more in depth info on each of those such as gram+/-, method of treatment etc. but since that's not the focus now you (hopefully) shouldn't have to worry about it. However, I would recommend being familiar with lab practice in general, e.g. what the gram test is etc.

Charts of diseases were a very good idea for foodborne, but much less relevant for environmental health. I would recommend devoting some space to measures of environmental quality, such as AQI, PM10, PM 2.5 etc.

[Infinity Flat]

I'd recommend making a table including basic information on a lot of the common diseases, namely symptoms, mode of transmission, and type (bacteria/virus etc.). When the topic was foodborne I also included some more in depth info on each of those such as gram+/-, method of treatment etc. but since that's not the focus now you (hopefully) shouldn't have to worry about it. However, I would recommend being familiar with lab practice in general, e.g. what the gram test is etc.

Charts of diseases were a very good idea for foodborne, but much less relevant for environmental health. I would recommend devoting some space to measures of environmental quality, such as AQI, PM10, PM 2.5 etc.

I agree, but I'd still suggest having some rudimentary disease tables (as described in first sentence) since many tests ask for that kind of information, regardless of whether it's appropriate or not. As for the measures of environmental quality, I think it's definitely very important to have some reference as to what the relevant terms mean, but I doubt it would be that helpful to have too many specific values of what counts as low/high quality.

[hmath729]

Thanks a lot, guys!

[Sodium_]

I was wondering, I've been doing this event for a long time and it seems I always end up studying the wrong areas/topics. For the regionals test, there were a couple topics which i studied vaguely, so I couldn't remember the answers. Also, the stuff i did study, like the Bradford Hill criteria, were of no use to me in the test. i would really like to try and get a single digit place on this event for state. What would you recommend studying, and some links and other stuff would be really helpful to me. thanks!

[hmath729]

Hey Sodium_, remember that the topic is environmental quality? Research some diseases caused by natural problems, such as drought. I already had regionals and placed 5th in DD... without studying environment. So study the environmental causes - it'll really help.

[hmath729]

Oh, and sodium, here are some links for studying.
For the CDC website on environmental health, click here. It's super helpful.
For a good practice test, click here.
Happy studying!

[Sodium_]

Thanks so much hmath! I did study environmental stuff, which was absolutely no use to me. - in our region, no matter the topic, the questions always seem to be foodborne, which doesn't make much sense, haha. Anyways, thank you for the links and everything, it helped a lot!

[hmath729]

No problem. Glad to help.