Influenza in Ohio: An Urgent Call for Preparedness and Response

Your surveillance team has been informed of a vicious strand of influenza that will hit in the fall. You will write a brief to convince your state legislators of the need for consistent funding for the efforts of preparedness and response in infectious disease epidemiology. Use data from this Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Influenza website. In your brief, you will need to cover the following:
• Background on influenza
• Provide a short history of Influenza
• Describe two current research designs used to study influenza rates and influenza vaccination
• Discuss the epidemiology of the current strand of the influenza disease and provide:
• Demographic information
• Provide incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality rates for your state
• Calculate disease rates for your state
• Discuss the potential for Antigenic shift
• Explain why it is important to maintain staffing and resource levels when there is not an outbreak
• Discuss the challenges to sudden influxes in funding during an outbreak
• Describe why it is as critical to fund infectious disease preparedness and response efforts as it is to combat things like obesity and the opioid epidemic
• Provide an analysis of the core challenges public health faces in an outbreak response