Outbreak of salmonellosis: EPIET fellow's case study and ESCAIDE poster

News
In 2010, Anna Zelicka Hardy, originally from the United Kingdom, was assigned as an EPIET fellow in Poland. Two years later, as she just graduated from EPIET, she reflects on her investigation of an outbreak of salmonellosis during a christening party. This outbreak investigation was key in Anna’s experience. First, she documented the role of home-produced eggs in the persistence of Salmonellosis in Poland. Second, she turned her outbreak investigation into a teaching case study that is now used in the EPIET introductory course. Third, the poster she prepared to share the results of the investigation won the EPIET Allumni Network (EAN) award of the best poster at the 2012 ESCAIDE conference.
EPIET Postcard from the field - EPIET fellow Anna Zelicka Hardy talking on the phone, during outbreak investigation

Can you tell us what where the most challenging aspects of this outbreak?

One of the most challenging aspects for me was conversing with the different public health authorities over the phone in Polish. Luckily for me everybody had a good sense of humour about it… Learning cultural nuances was also very interesting. The creamed scones and afternoon tea that I would have been used to was replaced by lots of tasty albeit calorific cakes. Images gathered over the Internet came in handy!

What did you learn throughout the process of preparing the case study?

Trying to prepare material that is used in any teaching exercise isn’t straightforward. Having several people acting as reviewers was helpful. In terms of content, “keeping it simple” is the best option. I wanted to share many details with the ‘audience’. However, I realized quite quickly that it not only diluted but distracted readers away from my main message.

How did you prepare your poster and what advice would you share with other epidemiologists who want to prepare one?

I had already prepared a slide presentation on the topic, which helped me narrow down the content and structure my poster. To try and grasp the audience attention, I used a number of pictures. Each heading conveyed the main message of that section, essentially allowing the viewer to grasp all key points within less than 1 minute. I tried to remove many technical terms, especially for the analytical analysis section, as I have found this can be distracting or confusing for the reader. If I was to summarize the main learning point for me during this exercise it would be: “It’s selecting what you have to leave out that is important, not what deciding what you put in”.

Share this page