Question

with the understanding that pre-infections can become infections, why would identification of a subclinical infection be important to the epidemiologic field?

Answer 1

Subclinical phase of infection is the hardest phase of the infection period that most of them fails to recognize it at the beginning stage.It doesnt exhibit any specific signs and symptoms and remain asymptomatic throughout the period and often goes unnoticed.The patients in this stage are usually carriers of the disease.Hence it is during this period most of the diseases are transmitted..The individual shows any signs and symptoms of that particular disease only after the end of the subclinical phase ie the incubation period.Subclinical infections allow infections to spread rapidly from one one carrier to another and can cause problems which is not telated to the main source of infection.For this reasons it is important to identify the subclinical infection in an epidemiological field.