Generally outbreak means a “sudden occurrence,” while in the epidemiological sense an outbreak is defined as a sudden increase in the disease frequency, related to time, place, and observed population.

Examples include cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma and diabetes. Non-communicable disease clusters are actually very rare. Reports of possible non-communicable disease clusters cause concern in the community.

For non-healthcare worksites, a cluster is defined as two or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases among workers at a worksite with onset of illness or if asymptomatic, a positive test result within a 14-day period, who are epidemiologically linked (have a potential connection in time and place) at the worksite.

CDC states that an outbreak “indicates potentially extensive transmission within a setting or organization” and the definition for outbreaks are “relative to the local context.” At PHMDC, we define a cluster as two or more cases associated with the same location, group, or event around the same time.

The clusters provide a tool that allows for the comparison of the content of practice based on different factors such as provider training, practice organization, and patient characteristics. Ninety-two diagnosis clusters were derived using the 1977 and 1978 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS).

If a larger number of people than expected appear to have the same illness in a given time period and area, it’s called a cluster. When an investigation shows that ill people in a cluster have something in common to explain why they all got the same illness, the group of illnesses is called an outbreak.

This means that tourism organizations and hotels and/or recovery centers need to be incorporated into the cluster in order to create reliably safe aftercare networks.

The goal of healthcare clusters is to provide a continuum of care to a defined geographic region through integration of referral and payment systems. To aid in successful planning for healthcare clusters, a market audit and frameworks for examining the current healthcare market are presented.

An outbreak is a sudden rise in the number of cases of a disease. An outbreak may occur in a community or geographical area, or may affect several countries. It may last for a few days or weeks, or even for several years. Some outbreaks are expected each year, such as influenza.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Announced January 2020.

Cluster Investigation Analysis. Disease clusters are aggregations of cases of a specific disease in space and/or time, in a community or an occupational group, at a level greater than expected by chance. Co-occurrences of cases are commonplace, and such occurrences are frequently reported as potential clusters.

Epidemic refers to an increase, often sudden, in the number of cases of a disease above what is normally expected in that population in that area. Outbreak carries the same definition of epidemic, but is often used for a more limited geographic area. Cluster refers to an aggregation of cases grouped in place and time that are suspected

Investigations of clusters reported reflect only a fraction of the activity of health agencies. The unofficial consensus among workers in public health is that most reports of clusters do not lead to a meaningful outcome. Often, a “case” is not clearly defined, and the “cluster” is, in fact, a mixture of different syndromes.

Exponent’s epidemiologists, biostatisticians, industrial hygienists, and environmental scientists have the expertise required to analyze disease clusters and have been directly involved in numerous disease clusters investigations.