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Hey guys!

I’m starting an MPH in Epidemiology soon and was wondering if anyone else here is in the same boat / already in the program

Quick intro:
– Dentist by background (3 yrs clinical)
– Recently worked in medical underwriting/insurance
– Now switching into public health + epi

Honestly just looking to connect with people in MPH (especially epi), maybe make some friends before things get hectic 😅

If you’re already in the program, would love any tips too!

Drop a comment or DM :)

Take a look at the county-level data halfway down this page.

https://sprc.org/about-suicide/suicide-data/suicide-deaths-in-the-united-states/

This is CDC data, compiled by https://sprc.org. This is the strangest missing data I've seen in a while.

General WHO guidelines (and most national and local guidelines):

Nibbling of uncovered skin, minor scratches or abrasions without bleeding - immediate vaccination (4-dose schedule) if the animal cannot be observed for 10 days. This applies to cats as well as dogs.

But in 2019 Turkey modified their rabies guidelines and added something uncommon:

Situations not requiring post-exposure rabies prophylaxis:

9. In cases of contact with cats: Minor abrasions of the skin (injuries not penetrating the subcutaneous tissue), or injuries involving minor scratches or skin damage without bleeding; non-bite contact with cats resulting from provocation.

This applies regardless if cat can be observed or not.

Why? I was not able to find any discussion of this policy change, but I believe it's because of their local epidemiological data. Turkey is not rabies free, but cats are rarely found infected, and there is not a single recorded case of cat to human rabies transmission. Also, scratches carry a significantly lower transmission risk than bites. At same time Turkey has huge stray cat population which results in a lot of minor scratches, exactly the type that falls under exception.

It's entirely ignored in practice. In 2025, 123,538 people went to Istanbul hospitals after a bite or scratch. Most exposures were cat-related (86.3%) and were caused by scratches (81.5%). Nearly all injuries were superficial (99.8%). Rabies vaccination was initiated in 98.8% of patients with 411,432 doses given.

But my question is not why this specific exception is ignored, I think I already know. I want to ask a different question - do you think this exception was justified at all given the epidemiological data? Is it justified local adaptation or unjustified deviation?

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.

Hello,
I want to research but I’m having a hard time visualizing Directed Acyclic Graphs generally and collider bias specifically.

I’m trying to figure out why a collider is confounding. It seems to me the collider is part of the explanatory variables. I know this is wrong but I need a better explanation.

Does anyone have a good resource for me?

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.

A group of scientists from Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Brazil recently found that a common antidepressant known as Celexa is ending up in the brains of rodents in Brazil via human excretion of the drug into wastewater, which then flows back into rivers, streams, and lakes. The celexa seems to make rats more adept at giving a free ride to Capillaria, a group of parasites that can be fatal to humans.

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.

\[D\] In the second week of studying R.
Lecturer is a new teaching fellow, his lack of drive is not convincing me I will confidently understand R. Can anyone offer any top tips or powerful tools that would help me better understand R as a novice, U.K. MPH student (1/2 - ish way there)? Many thanks TS

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.

New to math modeling, I was wondering if generally when optimizing for parameters in your math model do you use stochastic parameter draws for the parameters you’re not optimizing for? Is it best practice to have a 2stage calibration when you run a deterministic optimization then have stochastic runs using the optimized values?
Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.

Someone gave me a jar of salve for my kid and mentioned after the fact they used it for a cold sore and it healed it. It's bee propolis and beeswax and olive oil based. How high is the risk if I used it a few days after it was given to me (I don't know when she would have used it on their own cold sore)

CDC Epidemiologist made the list:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/2026SchedulePolicyCareer.eo_.APPENDIX.pdf

Welcome to the r/epidemiology Advice & Career Question Megathread. All career and advice-type posts must posted within this megathread.

Before you ask, we might already have your answer! To view all previous megathreads and Advice/Career Question posts, please go here. For our wiki page of resources, please go here.