Historical Figures in Public Health

Question 0

Snow

Answer 0

Shoe leather epidemiology (talked to people)
Figured deaths were due to contamination BEFORE germ theory
Classical epidemiology

Question 1

Farr

Answer 1

Collected data on cholera

Question 2

Bazalgette

Answer 2

Created sewage system to oceans

Question 3

Nightingale

Answer 3

Showed epidemiological data during Crimean war (more soldiers died of disease than war)
Classical epidemiology

Question 4

Semmelweis

Answer 4

Prevented deaths in OB clinic by making people do chlorine washes
Clinical epidemiology

Question 5

Galan

Answer 5

Drew anatomical diagrams (dissected monkeys)

Question 6

Vaselius

Answer 6

Father of anatomy
Dissected humans
Showed that Galan’s drawings were incorrect

Question 7

Flemming

Answer 7

Accidentally discovered penicillin

Question 8

Doll and Peto

Answer 8

Came up with preventable causes of cancer

But thinking about one risk factor is meaningless because there are so many risk factors

Question 9

Rothman

Answer 9

Causal mechanisms
There are many causes of disease, and they all interact
Causation is a chain with an infinite number of links/factors
Induction period, latency period

Question 10

Koch

Answer 10

Koch’s postulate (for pathogens)

1) pathogen must be present in all cases of disease
2) organism must be taken out and cultured
3) introduce organism –> cause disease
4) reisolate and confirm it is identical to original

Question 11

Mill

Answer 11

Adapted causal ideas from Avicenna

Question 12

Avicenna

Answer 12

First to have ideas on causality

Question 13

Hill

Answer 13

Hill’s criteria

1) temporal relationship
2) strength of association
3) dose response relationship
4) replication of findings
5) biological plausibility
6) consider alternate explanations
7) cessation of exposure
8) consistency with other knowledge
9) specificity of association