During an outbreak of viral encephalitis, a state reports 400 cases and 80 deaths from the disease over three months. A medical student concludes that this figure reflects how lethal the disease is for an affected individual. Which measure is the student describing?

• A Mortality rate of encephalitis
• B Cause-specific death rate of encephalitis
• C Proportional mortality ratio of encephalitis
• D Case fatality rate of encephalitis ✓

Explanation

Case fatality rate is total deaths from a disease divided by total cases of that disease, here 80 out of 400, i.e., 20 percent. It expresses lethality among those who develop the illness. Cause-specific death rate uses the whole population as denominator and includes people who never had the disease, while proportional mortality expresses the disease's share of all deaths. The student's statement concerns risk of death once infected, which defines CFR.

Reference: Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 27th ed.

High-yield for: NEET PGINI-CETNExTFMGEUSMLEPLABMRCP

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