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Outbreak Headquarters
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Back to the CDC |
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Case Files
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During the last week of August in 2007, three cases of disease were reported. The Whyvillians have asked us to withhold their names, so we will refer to them as Case A, B and C.
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A
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Case A is a male Whyvillian, age 13, who has been registered since November 2006. On Friday, Aug. 31st, he noticed spots on his face that would not go away. At first he thought it was his computer, but he restarted and it didn't help. The next day he came on and the spots were still there. He has no idea how he got sick. All he could say was, "Why did this happen to me?"
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B
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Case B is a female Whyvillian age 13 who has been registered since July 2007. She saw spots on her face on Sunday, Sept. 2. She remembers that she was talking to Case A on Wednesday, but he didn't have any spots then. She did not log on again until Sunday, so she doesn't know when exactly it started."He didn't look sick at all! How was I supposed to know?" she said.
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C
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Case C is a female Whyvillian, age 11, who has been registered since March 2006. She started sneezing on Sunday, Sept. 2nd. She tried to ask someone about them, but she was sneezing so much she could barely get the words out. She says she doesn't know Case A or Case B, but she was hanging out at the beach last week, and there were lots of people there. "Someone must've been sick at the beach! I'm going to stay away from crowded places from now on!" she said.
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Analyze the Disease Vector
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The "vector" of a disease refers to the way in which it spreads. Some infectious diseases spread easily in the air. Some require close contact between a sick person and someone else. In Whyville, there are many ways one citizen can interact with another: by being in the same room, by chatting, whispering, Y-mailing, sneezing, throwing projectiles... The list goes on. By reading the Case Files carefully to see what people report, it may be possible to figure out how a particular strain of virus spreads.
Please read the Case Files and help us think about it! If you have ideas, please post here!
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Are you sick with a Whyville virus?
Contribute your experience!
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Case files are very useful when you are trying to understand diseases. They help us differentiate one disease from another, get an idea of what the symptoms are, how long they last, and how the disease might spread from one person to the next. It's important that as many people as possible report their cases so we can get a complete picture of what's happening. If you have fallen victim to a Whyville virus, please contribute your experience!
Use the reports on Cases A, B, and C as examples on what information to give: when you started getting sick, what symptoms you have, and how you might have gotten sick.
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Back to the CDC
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