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The simplest temporal pattern for disease cases is an epidemic curve. The epidemic curve is a graph plotting the number of cases of the disease on the vertical axis against the time of onset of each case, either as a bar graph or frequency polygon. The first case identified for a particular outbreak is referred to as the index case. For infectious diseases, identifying the index case is important as information about the index case can be valuable in ascertaining the source of the outbreak and the incubation period.