Suicide, Violence, and Other Forms of Injury

Fatal and nonfatal self-directed and interpersonal violence and unintentional injuries can spread throughout a community just like infectious diseases. What drives people to attempt suicide, harm others, or place themselves in unsafe situations most often results from complex dynamics between themselves and their social environments. Nevertheless, outbreaks of fatal and nonfatal injuries do occur. Similar to how an infectious disease manifests and spreads, outbreaks of self-inflicted, violent injuries, and even unintentional injuries, such as drug overdoses, also can be precipitated by immediate exposures that public health prevention strategies can best address. At some point, a field epidemiologist will face the challenges and the nuances of these epidemics. This chapter provides case stories of injury-related epidemics and the exposures and circumstances that propagated them. It also reviews the types of investigations conducted to address these epidemics, common challenges, and the short- and long-term strategies used to control such dangerous and deadly outbreaks.