The epidemiologist must help set up a rapid, reliable system for reporting of notifiable diseases. Reports must be forwarded to the epidemiologist’s office for investigation. Patients must be sent for medical care, and patient contacts must be identified, located, and treated.

With reporting systems in place and a measure of the population at risk available, incidence rates for various diseases can be computed. When followed over time, these rates enable the epidemiologist to identify populations with an increased risk for the designated disease. In the military, the term “populations” often translates into “all soldiers serving in a specific unit” or “all units serving in a given region”.