This course is a core for students undertaking the Graduate Certificate in Hospital Epidemiology with responsible for their hospital's infection control program or nurses and doctors with an interest in infection control. The course will introduce students to the disciplines of epidemiology and statistics using the key areas of responsibility for infection control - surveillance and outbreak investigations. Important statistical techniques covered include correct interpretation of statistical results, calculation of common statistics required for infection control such as infection rates, 95% confidence interval, attack rates, and tests for comparisons between rates and against threshold rate (your past rates, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention). You will learn the theory of outbreak investigation and to plot and interpret an epidemic curve for outbreak investigation and identify significant associations between exposures and infection. Important epidemiological tools such as study designs, biases, validity and reliability will be learnt so that students may design sound studies associated with infection control and critically appraise the medical literature.