Students will be required to complete a 7-10 page final paper for this course. The final paper will require the student to select an infectious disease and provide an epidemiological overview of this topic. An infectious disease is one that is communicable and transmittable between humans or can be transmitted to humans by a vector like a mosquito or tick.

Please note that you must gain approval from your instructor for your topic during Week 4.  Also, carefully review Lesson 7 before you begin to work on this paper.  All writing should be in paragraph form and academic writing style (no lists).  

Since topics may vary, formatting will as well; however, students will need to provide:

1. Abstract
2. Introduction to the Disease ____________. (Place the name of your communicable disease in the blank.)
   1. Nature of the Disease (this is where you will explain if it is a chronic or acute, what the disease agent is and if there are underlying causes).
   2. Clinical Picture (this is where you will explain how it is transmitted between humans, what the signs and symptoms are of the disease, how it is tested for and medically determined, what the treatment is for this disease, how long the treatment takes, the risks for re-infection, are there long term problems found in people who have been treated and cleared from having the disease, if it is not a curable disease then what are the long term health consequences of someone having it in their bodies).
3. Descriptive Epidemiology 
   1. Statistics (number of people currently with an active infection, the number of people who have been treated, the number of people who have died from the disease).  To find these statistics, first go to the CDC website. If the CDC does not report current data, then go to the website of the organization that spearheads research in that disease area as they typically have current data on their websites (i.e. if the communicable disease is tuberculosis then the organization is the American Lung Association).
   2. If you find graphs or tables that represent the data you are quoting, then insert that graph or table and reference it. There should be only 1 of these in your paper. (This is known as using descriptive epidemiology concepts). The table does not replace the statistics section of your paper where the statistics are written out in narrative form. FYI…you are not making these graphs or tables for yourself.
   3. Populations at Risk (what populations are more at-risk and why?)
   4. Trends (overall trends in incidence and prevalence of disease including current trends and past trends).
   5. Outlook (what is the immediate and future outlook of the disease?)
4. Public Health
   1. Interventions (include the prevention efforts such as vaccination programs, educational efforts, etc.)
   2. Disease Control and Prevention Efforts (how is the disease controlled by public health? This is not how individuals avoid it, it is the national and international efforts for preventing the disease. How do these two entities work together to prevent the disease.)
5. Conclusions
   1. Summarize main points of paper. This will be one or two paragraphs.
6. References
   1. Use APA format for all of the references you used in the paper.

There must be a minimum of five (5) different scholarly, peer reviewed journal sources used. These references must be within the last 5 years. References must follow the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for reference and bibliographic citation. If necessary, refer to Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ED). 2009 Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

3.  Use Times New Roman Font in a 12-point font.

4.  Use 1 inch for the top, bottom, left and right margins.

5. Use proper APA format as given to you in the attached example.