ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Epi Info

Epi Info is a computer program that is used by very smart people called epidemiologists. Epidemiologists are like detectives who try to solve the mystery of how diseases begin and spread. Epi Info helps them do this by allowing them to collect, manage, and analyze data about diseases and the people who have them.

Think of Epi Info like a big coloring book. It has lots of pages where you can write down information about different things like how many people got sick or how the disease might have spread. You can even draw pictures and put stickers on the pages to help you remember things better.

But Epi Info doesn't just let you collect information, it also helps you make sense of it. Just like how mommy and daddy may use a calculator to help them figure out how much money they have, epidemiologists use Epi Info to help them figure out how many people have a certain disease and where it might be coming from.

It's kind of like when you play a matching game. You have to look at all the pictures and figure out which ones are the same. Epidemiologists use Epi Info to do this with data. They can make graphs and charts that show how the disease is spreading and who is most affected by it.

So that's what Epi Info is in a nutshell. It's a computer program that helps smart people called epidemiologists collect and make sense of data about diseases. And just like you can use crayons in your coloring book to make beautiful pictures, epidemiologists can use Epi Info to paint a picture of how diseases are affecting people.