Assignment: Epidemiological Methods

 Assignment: Epidemiological Methods

Assignment Epidemiological Methods

There are several diagnostic and screening tests available for influenza A/B. One of the main method is the molecular assays, which includes reverse transcription polymerase and the rapid molecular assays (RT-PCR). The above test mainly targets the influenza virus within the respiratory specimen. Also, other nucleic acid amplification tests may also apply. In most cases, viral culture is essential for the purposes of improving public health; however, it does not always give timely results to enhance clinical management (Bartlett, Wark, & Knight, 2019). The specificity and sensitivity regarding any influenza test in the respiratory specimen sometimes differs by the type of tests and the testing methods employed. Also, the success of the screening method wholly relies on the quality of specimen, as well as the time of the specimen collection to the time of testing. With the nucleic acid amplification tests, the predictive values or the post-test probability of the influenza virus relies on the prevalence of the outbreak or the circulating seasonal influenza viruses within a given population, as well as the specific test characteristics.

One of the main tools applied in the screening or diagnosis of the influenza A/B is the Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tool. RT-PCR is a new tool that generally takes care of sensitivity more than the culture method. It has an improved detection rates over the tools used in the culture method. RT-PCR is however, complex, expensive and is often used in the specialized laboratories. The tool, through nucleic separation, is able to detect the presence of both influenza A and influenza B antigens within the nasal swab specimens, thereby giving complete results within 15 minutes. The tool applies the antibodies specific for influenza A and influenza B to selectively distinguish the antigens involved in influenza A and influenza B. RT-PCR tool targets both the group of patients with severe and mild influenza virus especially the adults of above 40 years of age.

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RT-PCR tool has specifically been tested in the above age group severally and it has proven to be effective in screening the viruses that cause both influenza A and B (Samadikuchaksaraei, 2016). Using the above tool in the screening processes, there are

always different ways to know if the tests are reliable and valid. First, the method above often detects influenza A and B separately and measures the viral load (Omidi et al., 2017). The reliability and validity values for the RT-PCR tool is almost 1 with little errors detected. This therefore means that the tool is more efficient compared to the culture methods. RT-PCR tool is generally more sensitive and it has higher predictive values of over 20% compared to the culture method. In other words, the predictive values ranges from 95% to 99%, which means that it is more accurate compared to the traditional or conventional tools used before (Raghavendra & Pullaiah, 2018). The tool is more sensitive in measuring both influenza A/B that it has been developed to measure.

With the efficiency and reliability, I would most likely integrate the above tool in the advanced practices. Based on the information provided, it is clear that the tool is more reliable and efficient in the detection of both the active and mild influenza viruses. In other words, it is more advanced compared to the traditional culture methods that have been used for many years. With the high level of detection rate, more healthcare institutions and epidemiologists are more likely to integrate it in their operational processes.

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Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource