Epidemiology

TRIDENT UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL

James A. Bloxsom

Module 1 Case Assignment

BHS210 Introduction to Epidemiology

Dr. Beharry

First let’s break down the word so we can understand it better

EPI-on or upon

DEMOS-People

LOGOS-The study of

Epidemiology: The branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of the disease and other factors relating to health.

In Brief here is how Epidemiology came about from the beginning to now

About 400 B.C. Hippocrates tried to describe disease occurrence in a rational instance instead of the supernatural viewpoint. In his essay “on air, waters and Places” he suggests environmental, and host factors like behaviors may influence in the development of diseases.

In 1662 John Graunt was the first person to quantify the birth to death, and disease occurrence, noting male-female disparities, urban-rural differences, and seasonal variations.

In the mid 1800’s William Farr who is known in the field as the father of modern vital statistics and disease classification. He built on to the process of graunt’s work by adding morbidity and mortality data, and marital status, occupation altitude. He was also responsible for the development of the epidemiologic concepts and techniques that are still used today in the field.

In the Mid 1800’s Europe and the united States began to apply epidemiologic methods to investigate the occurrence of diseases in fact most used this thought process to look into acute occurrences of diseases.

John Snow who is known as the father of the field who by trade was an Anesthesiologist made various breakthroughs in the field of Epidemiology. Some examples of this were proving that Cholera was ingested and not inhaled.

The second great Cholera Epidemic of 1853 arrived looked into the areas to which the population was getting the water delivered from. Over a seven week trial he was able to prove that the water source that was being...