Healthcare facilities play an integral role in interrupting the transmission of infectious agents and recognizing, preventing, and controlling outbreaks caused by infectious and noninfectious agents. This comprehensive resource offers practical guidance for the future or practicing health care professional who must be prepared to recognize and investigate outbreaks and identify effective interventions that can be used to interrupt and prevent outbreaks. With hundreds of references and examples of actual outbreaks, this is an ideal resource for infection prevention and control professionals, hospital epidemiologists, clinical laboratory scientists and health care quality management personnel. The Second Edition is a thorough revision that offers the most up-to-date information, examples, tables, statistics, and readings.