Outbreaks due to toxic (e.g., non-infectious) etiologies have resulted in significant morbidity and mortality; recent high-profile outbreaks were associated with contaminated nutritional supplements and synthetic marijuana. Outbreaks of toxic etiology can present challenges that are unique compared with outbreaks of infectious etiology; thus, their investigation often requires a modified approach. Expertise in environmental epidemiology and investigations of toxic outbreaks may be limited at state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health agencies where infectious disease expertise may be more prevalent.
METHODS:
To address this gap, the National Center for Environmental Health’s Health Studies Branch (HSB) with input from state partners is developing a training course to describe how to conduct a toxic outbreak investigation.
RESULTS:
HSB is developing a 1-2 day course to train STLT public health agencies about how to identify when an outbreak might be due to a toxin and how to apply environmental epidemiologic principles when investigating these outbreaks. The goal of this course is to strengthen the capacity of STLT public health agencies to respond to toxic outbreaks thus reducing morbidity and mortality in the exposed populations. During this oral presentation, we will introduce the curriculum, materials, and format that have been developed for this training and gather feedback from the audience to incorporate into the training.
CONCLUSIONS:
The Health Studies Branch at NCEH is developing training materials for investigating toxic outbreaks. Trainings will be available in both participant and instructor led formats. The goal of this training is to help build capacity of STLT health agencies to respond to toxic outbreaks.