LAB

• Epidemiology


  The study to understand and explain illness, injury and death from scientific observation. They provide information for prevention and control of health-related states and events.
• Hippocrates


  • Physician known as the father of medicine, the first epidemiologist, introduced terms like epidemic and endemic, addressed issues of disease in relation to time, seasons, place, environmental condition and disease control as it related to water and the seasons, identified hot and cold diseases
• Thomas Sydenham


  • Graduate of Oxford Medical School, did not acquire medical license but served military and as college administrator, sparked interest in diseases and epidemics, wrote details of what he observed about diseases without letting traditional theories influence his work, distinguished and described different diseases including psychological maladies, advanced useful treatments like exercise, fresh air and healthy diet
• John Graunt


  • From the "bills of mortality" in London, identified variations in death according to gender, residence, season, and age, first to develop and calculate life tables and life expectancy, summarized mortality data and developed better understanding of diseases and sources/causes of death
• Bernardino Ramazzini


  • Observed that disease among workers arose from harmful materials they handled that emitted noxious vapours and fine particles, and from violent/irregular motions and unnatural postures, made epidemiologic contributions on work-related maladies and prevention
• James Lind


  • Scottish naval surgeon, observed that armies lost more men to disease than to the sword, focused on illness in populations, observed the effect of time, place, weather, and diet on the spread of disease on sailors, discovered that orange and lemon were most effective for treating scurvy
• Benjamin Jesty


  • Farmer/dairyman, observed that milkmaids never got smallpox but developed cowpox, in 1774 exposed his wife and children to cowpox to protect them from smallpox
• Edward Jenner


  • English rural physician, familiar with Jesty's experiment, began his own experiments and noted that dairymen's servants and milkmaids got cowpox but not smallpox, invented a vaccination for smallpox
• Ignaz Semmelweis


  • Discovered that infected or putrefied tissue, whether from a living patient or cadaver, could cause disease to spread, introduced hand washing in chlorinated lime to reduce illness and deaths from childbed fever
• William Farr


  • Appointed registrar general in England, used ideas of Graunt, developed a modern vital statistics system, promoted the idea that some diseases can have a multifactorial etiology
• John Snow


  • Studied cholera, recorded epidemiologic information like mode of transmission, incubation times, cause and effect, clinical observations, and manifestations, showed that cholera was a waterborne disease, laid groundwork for descriptive and analytic epidemiologic approach, referred to as the father of epidemiology
• Louis Pasteur


  • French chemist, doctor of medicine and public health, in 1881 discovered anthrax vaccine and proved its effectiveness through public demonstration
• Robert Koch


  • German district medical officer, used photography to show that microorganisms exist and cause disease, showed that anthrax was transmissible and reproducible, discovered tubercle bacillus, isolated and cultivated Vibrio cholerae and proved it was transmitted by drinking water, food and clothing, pioneered identification of microorganisms and bacteria by culturing techniques
• Florence Nightingale


  • Wanted to make nursing a respectable profession, believed nurses should be trained in science, advocated for strict discipline, cleanliness and empathy for patients, applied statistical methods to display her data, her improved sanitary methods lessened death rates
• Typhoid Mary


  • Irish cook who was a chronic carrier of typhoid fever, illustrated the importance of concern over chronic carriers causing and spreading disease
• Population and epidemiology are key study areas
• Core functions of epidemiology

  Concept of disease occurrence, level of disease
• Determinants of health


  • Biological
  • Behavioural
  • Social
  • Economic
  • Environmental
• Factors that determine health

  • Policy making
  • Social factors
  • Health services
  • Individual behavior
  • Biology and genetics
• The determinants of health are complex, presenting challenges for public policy and research to understand and take action to improve population health
• World known pandemics


  • Covid-19 (2019)
  • SARS (2002-2004)
  • HIV/AIDS (1981)
  • H3N2 flu pandemic (1968)
  • Spanish Flu (1918-1919)
  • Russian Flu (1889-1890)
  • Cholera (1871-1824)
  • Smallpox (1870-1874)
  • Black Death (1347-1352)
  • Antonine Plague (165-180 AD)