Epidemiology Case Study

1) Epidemiology is the study of distribution and determinant of health related states or event (e.g. health and disease, morbidity, injuries, disability and mortality) in a specified population and the application of the study to the control of health problem

My impression regarding the scope of epidemiology was that epidemiology investigates infectious, chronic diseases and condition associated with occupationally and environmental health hazards

Based on the material topics covered by epidemiology include Infectious disease, chronic diseases, environmental health, lifestyle and health promotion, psychiatric and social epidemiology, molecular and genetic epidemiology.

2) Epidemiology examines disease occurrence among population. It also seeks physician and nurses may suggest epidemiological research on the basis of clinical observation.

3) Epidemiology can rely on medical discipline to identify specific cases that require epidemiologic investigation. Epidemiology as an interdisciplinary field draws from various field like biostatistics, social and behavioral sciences as well as medically related fields like toxicology, pathology, virology, microbiology and clinical medicine. Toxicology investigates the presence of chemical agent, microbiology gives information about microorganism. Clinical medicine involves diagnosis of patient’s state of health.

Epidemiology is interdisciplinary because it derives technique and methodologies from many discipline. The contribution of many discipline help unravel the factors associated with a particular disease. Epidemiology profits from interdisciplinary approach because the causality of a particular disease in a population may involve the interaction of multiple factors.

4) a. Hippocrates association of environment to disease was significant to movement away from supernatural explanation of disease causation (Miasma theory of

Emergence of a disease such as bird flu calls for concern for public health officials because, migrating flocks of wild birds which cover vast geographical areas could spread the virus to domestic poultry. Humans who come in contact with domestic birds are at risk of contracting the virus and domestic poultry are major source of protein.

Health care would need to have adequate capacity to deal with a sudden and large increase in the number of patients. There may be need for isolation and quarantine and other strict regulation in organized society in order to control the disease.

15) It is less likely to have an epidemic of plague during the current decade because of improve sanitary conditions in most countries and availability of antibiotic for treatment.

16) It is possible for foodborne illness to erupt in developed country due to improper handling and importation of food. There has been recent E.coli outbreak in developed countries like U.S (2006) and Germany (2011). However, the public health community is well prepared to respond to such