When Your Case Counts Don't Match Lab Results: A 5-Minute Reconciliation Checklist
You pull the weekly line list. Cases: 847. Lab positives: 912. That's 65 ghost cases—or maybe you're missing 65? Depends on how you read it. This isn'...
Master Epidemiology with Actionable Checklists: From Outbreak Investigations to Data Analysis
Skip the fluff. Xylosyn delivers practical how-to guides and step-by-step checklists for busy epidemiologists and public health professionals who need answers fast.
Articles — Page 3
What to Fix First in a Contact Tracing Script That Confuses Field Staff
You're staring at a contact tracing script someone wrote at 2 a.m. during a surge. It's got bullet points nested inside tables, a disclaimer about pri...
Choosing a Rapid Serosurvey Method Without a Cold Chain: A 4-Step Guide
You've been there. The samples are degrading in a cooler that stopped cooling six hours ago. The study site has no grid power, and the nearest cold st...
When Your Outbreak Data Has Too Many Missing Dates: A 3-Cell Fix
You've got 400 case records for a cholera outbreak in Nampula. The epi curve looks like Swiss cheese—holes everywhere. Date of onset is blank for 30% ...
Outbreak Field Protocols
Choosing a Sampling Strategy When the Village Has No Map: A Field-Ready Decision Tree
You land in a village where the last census was a decade ago, the roads are unmarked, and the only map is a sketch on a napkin. The outbreak is moving...
Outbreak Field Protocols
When Your Outbreak Team Has No Translator: 4 Communication Workarounds
You are in a makeshift clinic in a region where the outbreak just crossed a border. Your team speaks English and French. The patients speak a dialect ...
Outbreak Field Protocols
Choosing a Case Definition When Symptoms Keep Shifting: A 2-Page Triage Checklist
You land in a district where the initial ten cases had fever and cough. By day five, eight more show up with rash and conjunctivitis. The lab is two d...
Field Epidemiology Checklists
When Your Checklist Assumes Perfect Lab Access: 5 Workarounds for Remote Sites
You land at a dusty airstrip. Your kit has checklist printed on waterproof paper—each phase assuming a BSL-2 lab, cold chain, and power. But here, the...
Field Epidemiology Checklists
When Your Field Epidemiology Checklist Ignores Local Food Habits: A 4-Step Cultural Audit
You land in a village. Cases are climbing. Your standard checklist has a box for 'food history'—but it asks about 'shared meals' and 'restaurant expos...
When Your Contact Tracing List Grows Faster Than Your Team Can Handle
It starts with a lone positive case. Then another. Within 48 hours, your contact tracing list has doubled, then tripled. Your staff of five is now try...
What to Fix First in an Epidemic Curve That Keeps Changing Shape
You stare at the curve. It looked like a textbook peak yesterday. Today it has a second hump that shouldn't be there. The team asks: What do we fix fi...
Field Epidemiology Checklists
When Your Field Epidemiology Checklist Ignores Community Context: A 4-Question Reframe
You're in a rural district, 48 hours into an outbreak investigation. Your checklist—the one you've used a dozen times—says "Conduct house...