Investigating outbreaks caused by non-infectious, toxic agents requires some unique considerations and skills that are different from those used to investigate infectious disease outbreaks. To help public health agencies investigate these outbreaks, CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) has developed a Toxicological Outbreak Investigation course. The goal of the Toxicological Outbreak Investigation Course is to provide information, resources, and learning activities to impart the knowledge and skills needed to investigate a toxicological outbreak to public health practitioners who investigate outbreaks.

The Toxicological Outbreak investigation toolkit is a collection of sample customizable documents that can be used during an outbreak investigation.

The Toxicological Outbreak Investigation Course consists of the following modules:

Module 1: Course Introduction and Overview
Module 2: Toxicological Principles
Module 3: Toxicological Laboratory Principles
Module 4: Analyzing and Interpreting Laboratory Results
Module 5: Steps of a Toxicological Outbreak Investigation
Module 6: Domestic Case Study
Module 7: International Case Study

The toolkit and course are available here.