unit 1-2 Flashcards
.studies the causes, transmission, incidence, and prevalence of health and disease
in human populations. Medical and public health disciplines use results to solve
and control human health problems
epidemiology
On 28 February 2003, the French Hospital of Hanoi, Vietnam, consulted the Hanoi office of the World
Health Organization (WHO). A business traveler from Hong Kong had been hospitalized on 26 February for
respiratory symptoms resembling influenza that had started three days before. The WHO medical officer, Dr
Carlo Urbani, an infectious diseases epidemiologist answered the call. Within days, three more people fell ill
with the same symptoms (which looked like influenza but it wasn’t). Dr. Urbani recognized the aggressiveness
and the highly contagious nature of the disease. The first patient died early March 2003. Similar cases started
to show up in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China and Canada. Dr Urbani courageously persisted
working in what he knew to be a highly hazardous environment. After launching a worldwide alert via the WHO
surveillance network, he fell ill while travelling to Bangkok and died on 29 March. A run of new cases, some fatal,
occurring not only among the staff of the French Hospital but elsewhere.
Public health services were confronted with two related tasks: to build an emergency worldwide net of
containment, while investigating the ways in which the contagion spread in order to pinpoint its origin and to
discover how the responsible agent, most probably a micro-organism, was propagated. It took four months to
identify the culprit of the new disease as a virus of the corona-virus family that had jumped to infect humans
from wild small animals handled and consumed as food in the Guangdong province of China. By July 2003, the
worldwide propagation of the virus, occurring essentially via infected air travelers, was blocked. The outbreak
of the new disease, labelled SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), stopped at some 8,000 cases and 800
deaths. The toll would have been much heavier were it not for a remarkable international collaboration to control
the spread of the virus through isolation of cases and control of wildlife markets. Epidemiology was at the heart
of this effort, combining investigations in the populations hit by SARS with laboratory studies that provided the
knowledge required for the disease-control interventions.
vignettes
dates back to the time of Hippocrates, circa 400 BC. It is based on the
Greek roots epi (upon), demos (the people, as in ‘‘democracy’’ and ‘‘demography’’), and logia (‘‘speaking
of,’’ ‘‘the study of’’).
epidemiology
It was first used in the English language dates to the mid-19th century, around the
time the London Epidemiological Society was founded in 1850.
epidemiology
‘‘the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related
states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to control of health
problems’’.
JL
john last 2001
the study of the distribution and determinants of diseases and injuries in populations
MAB
mausner and baum 1974
the study of the occurrence of illness
GA
gaylord anderson
a method of reasoning about disease that deals with biological inferences derived from
observations of disease phenomena in population group
L
lilienfeld 1978
the quantitative analysis of the circumstances under which disease processes, including
trauma, occur in population groups, and factors affecting their incidence, distribution, and host
responses, and the use of this knowledge in prevention and control
E
evans 1979
The word epidemiology is, of course, based on the word ______. Until not too
long ago, ____ referred only to the rapid and extensive spread of an infectious disease within a
population.
epidemic
the occurrences of disease in clear excess of normalcy
epidemic
is an epidemic that affects several
countries or continents.
pandemic
a_____ disease is one that is consistently present in the environment. The
term _____ is also used to refer to a normal or usual rate of disease
endemic
are concerned not only with death, illness and disability, but also with more
positive health states and, most importantly, with the means to improve health.
epidemiologists
The term _____
encompasses all unfavorable health changes, including injuries and mental health.
disease
endemics of animals spread to human population
epizotic
refers to collective actions to improve population health.
public health
often used to describe the health status of population groups
epidemiology
evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of health services. Both existing and
newly developed preventive and therapeutic measures and modes of health care delivery are evaluated
epidemiologists
focus on specific areas of study which include infectious diseases, chronic
diseases, maternal and child health, injury, environmental health, nutrition, health policy, and health
behavior.
epidemiologists
IDE is the epidemiologic study of
infectious or communicable diseases. Infectious diseases are caused by an infectious agent or by the
product of an infectious agent. Such an infection is due to transmission of the agent from an infected
individual, animal, or reservoir to a susceptible host. Transition may be direct or indirect via plant or
animal host, vector or an object.
infectious disease epidemiology
CDE is the study of diseases or conditions that
have a prolonged duration, such as heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy, cancer, stroke, arthritis, glaucoma,
and asthma.
chronic disease epidemiology
MACHE focuses on improving the health and wellbeing
of women, children, and families, and investigating risk factors for health outcomes that especially
affect women and children.
maternal and child health epidemiology
IAIC Injury prevention and motor vehicle safety is a very important issue in public health. injuries and
accidents occur under certain patterns and conditions. Many injuries and accidents are predictable and
are more likely to occur among certain risk groups, so we can work to reduce or prevent them.
injuries and injury control
