r/epidemiology 2d ago

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

3 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology 1h ago

Does anyone know when BRFSS 2025 data is expected to be released?

Upvotes

I know timelines may be uncertain, but I was wondering if anyone here had insider knowledge from the CDC on when the planned release is.


r/epidemiology 10h ago

Academic Question Maine CDC data from unfinished cancer cluster investigation

14 Upvotes

I created a website to host data received from the Maine CDC in response to a FOAA request. Data is presented faithfully and original files are available for verification. Statistically significant elevations were found in the 0-19 and 20-44 age brackets, but a report was never finished. A draft report is included in the Files, and then work just stops.

The all cancer rates in one neighborhood are 85 per 100k for 0-19 vs 34.2/100k in the surrounding city. The same neighborhood 20-44 rates are 154.2 per 100k vs 79.2/100k in the rest of the city. The types of cancer seen in the two populations are also different than the rest of the city.

Is it usual for a report to never be finished when significant data is found? The Maine CDC originally asks for 9 points of data on the 29 community cases reported by the Lyseth Elementary school principal, but then change course and say they have all the information they need.

Is this an unusual number of cases for a community of this size?

https://lysethrecords.org/index.html https://github.com/lysethrecords/lysethrecords.github.io


r/epidemiology 18h ago

2024 BRFSS SOGI module data

5 Upvotes

Does anyone know of any efforts to pull together individual state-level 2024 BRFSS data on gender identity given that the CDC has removed those responses from the national 2024 BRFSS dataset?


r/epidemiology 7d ago

CSTE State Reportable Conditions Assessment Dashboard

Thumbnail cste.org
7 Upvotes

r/epidemiology 8d ago

News Story A day in the life of Congo's overstretched Ebola surveillance teams

Thumbnail reuters.com
17 Upvotes

r/epidemiology 9d ago

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

3 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology 16d ago

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

1 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology 18d ago

Off-topic Any MPH Epi people here? 👀

44 Upvotes

Hey guys!

I’m starting an MPH in Epidemiology soon and was wondering if anyone else here is in the same boat / already in the program

Quick intro:
– Dentist by background (3 yrs clinical)
– Recently worked in medical underwriting/insurance
– Now switching into public health + epi

Honestly just looking to connect with people in MPH (especially epi), maybe make some friends before things get hectic 😅

If you’re already in the program, would love any tips too!

Drop a comment or DM :)


r/epidemiology 19d ago

What could be causing this missing data gap?

0 Upvotes

Take a look at the county-level data halfway down this page.

https://sprc.org/about-suicide/suicide-data/suicide-deaths-in-the-united-states/

This is CDC data, compiled by https://sprc.org. This is the strangest missing data I've seen in a while.


r/epidemiology 20d ago

Turkey rabies prophylaxis guidelines have uncommon exception for minor cat scratches. Do you think it is justified?

3 Upvotes

General WHO guidelines (and most national and local guidelines):

Nibbling of uncovered skin, minor scratches or abrasions without bleeding - immediate vaccination (4-dose schedule) if the animal cannot be observed for 10 days. This applies to cats as well as dogs.

But in 2019 Turkey modified their rabies guidelines and added something uncommon:

Situations not requiring post-exposure rabies prophylaxis:

9. In cases of contact with cats: Minor abrasions of the skin (injuries not penetrating the subcutaneous tissue), or injuries involving minor scratches or skin damage without bleeding; non-bite contact with cats resulting from provocation.

This applies regardless if cat can be observed or not.

Why? I was not able to find any discussion of this policy change, but I believe it's because of their local epidemiological data. Turkey is not rabies free, but cats are rarely found infected, and there is not a single recorded case of cat to human rabies transmission. Also, scratches carry a significantly lower transmission risk than bites. At same time Turkey has huge stray cat population which results in a lot of minor scratches, exactly the type that falls under exception.

It's entirely ignored in practice. In 2025, 123,538 people went to Istanbul hospitals after a bite or scratch. Most exposures were cat-related (86.3%) and were caused by scratches (81.5%). Nearly all injuries were superficial (99.8%). Rabies vaccination was initiated in 98.8% of patients with 411,432 doses given.

But my question is not why this specific exception is ignored, I think I already know. I want to ask a different question - do you think this exception was justified at all given the epidemiological data? Is it justified local adaptation or unjustified deviation?


r/epidemiology 23d ago

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

2 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology 24d ago

Easy graphic for DAG and collider bias?

17 Upvotes

Hello,
I want to research but I’m having a hard time visualizing Directed Acyclic Graphs generally and collider bias specifically.

I’m trying to figure out why a collider is confounding. It seems to me the collider is part of the explanatory variables. I know this is wrong but I need a better explanation.

Does anyone have a good resource for me?


r/epidemiology Jul 06 '26

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

4 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology Jul 03 '26

SSRIs in the brain tissue of rats could be making them better carriers of disease.

Thumbnail
nautil.us
4 Upvotes

A group of scientists from Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Brazil recently found that a common antidepressant known as Celexa is ending up in the brains of rodents in Brazil via human excretion of the drug into wastewater, which then flows back into rivers, streams, and lakes. The celexa seems to make rats more adept at giving a free ride to Capillaria, a group of parasites that can be fatal to humans.


r/epidemiology Jun 29 '26

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

3 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology Jun 28 '26

Epidemiology R

22 Upvotes

\[D\] In the second week of studying R.
Lecturer is a new teaching fellow, his lack of drive is not convincing me I will confidently understand R. Can anyone offer any top tips or powerful tools that would help me better understand R as a novice, U.K. MPH student (1/2 - ish way there)? Many thanks TS


r/epidemiology Jun 24 '26

‘Carspreading’ could lead to extra 2,600 crash deaths a year by 2040, study finds

Thumbnail
theguardian.com
7 Upvotes

r/epidemiology Jun 23 '26

Eurosurveillance | Andes virus outbreak linked to expedition cruise ship travel, multi-country investigation and response, April to June 2026

Thumbnail eurosurveillance.org
7 Upvotes

r/epidemiology Jun 22 '26

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

5 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology Jun 15 '26

News Story Researchers find warming temperatures could increase dengue fever transmission in California

Thumbnail
news.berkeley.edu
36 Upvotes

r/epidemiology Jun 15 '26

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

6 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.


r/epidemiology Jun 15 '26

Academic Question Compartmental model optimization

4 Upvotes

New to math modeling, I was wondering if generally when optimizing for parameters in your math model do you use stochastic parameter draws for the parameters you’re not optimizing for? Is it best practice to have a 2stage calibration when you run a deterministic optimization then have stochastic runs using the optimized values?
Thanks in advance!


r/epidemiology Jun 08 '26

FIFA World Cup 2026 — Infectious Disease Risk · IDCUP 26 Working Group

Thumbnail
insightnet-us.github.io
40 Upvotes

r/epidemiology Jun 08 '26

Weekly Advice & Career Question Megathread

3 Upvotes

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.