BIOL 437 Week One Part 2

Question 1

Hippocrates

Answer 1

-father of epidemiology
-first to give a rational explanation vs. a super natural
>environmental and host factors
>behaviours
-terms: endemic and pandemic

Question 2

Girolamo Fracastoro

Answer 2

-identify transmission methods
>air
>contaminated clothing (fomites)
-proposed disease was caused by a rapidly multiplying seed
>seeds transmitted by direct contact, air or contaminated clothing

Question 3

fomites

Answer 3

• anything that can transmit disease

ex. hair brush, towels, etc

Question 4

John Graunt

Answer 4

-held many hats
-founder of demography
-considered by some to be father of statistics
-life tables and life expectancy
>published lots of data
-first to quantify patterns of birth, death and disease occurrence
-variation based on gender, location, seasons and high infant mortality

Question 5

Thomas Syndenham

Answer 5

-physician
-empirical approach (observational)
-classified types of fever (continuous or intermittent)
>some opposed Hippocratic approach
-did not identify causes

Question 6

James Lind

Answer 6

-focused on time, place, weather and diet of the spread of disease
-specifically scurvy cause and treatment
-founder of naval hygiene in England
-due to deficiency of citrus fruit
>now know it is vitamin C deficiency
-implemented an experimental design

Question 7

Percival Pott

Answer 7

• English surgeon
• first to associate cancer with occupational exposure
• Chimney Sweepers: Cancer of the Scrotum

Question 8

Sir Edwin Chadwick

Answer 8

• studied sanitation issues is UK
• disease related to living conditions
• proposed flushing toilets in homes
• sewage system to avoid contaminating drinking water
• improving health of the poor, good for entire nation

Question 9

William Farr

Answer 9

• London epidemiologist
• one of the founders of epidemiology
• built on Graunt’s work
• collected Britian’s mortality statistics
• reported on cholera outbreak (elevation differences)
• father of modern vital statistics and surveillance
• reported to health authorities and general public

Question 10

Ignaz Semmelweis

Answer 10

• examining childhood fever (uterine infection)
• hand hygeine
• examination of patients linked to disease onset
• students going straight from morgue to maternity ward without washing hands
• initiated use of chlorinated lime before entering the ward and between patients

Question 11

Sir John Snow

Answer 11

-father of modern epidemiology
-anesthesiologist
-conducted first outbreak investigation in UK (cholera)
>compared districts (spot map)
>isolated at water pump (got it removed)

Question 12

spot map from cholera

Answer 12

• had to go to water pump to get water
• geographic distribution of cases
• hypothesized that water might be the source
• certain pump removed, lead to a decrease in mortality rate

Question 13

causative bacteria of cholera

Answer 13

• not identified until Robert Koch about 30years later

* example of how descriptive epidemiology was used to generated hypothesis testing (analytical epidemiology)

Question 14

mid-1800s

Answer 14

-epidemics and infectious disease only (acute disease)

Question 15

1930s + 1940s

Answer 15

-non-infectious and chronic diseases

Question 16

mid 1950s

Answer 16

-infectious disease AND specific conditions associated with them

Question 17

1960s + 1970s

Answer 17

-applied to eradicate small pox worldwide

>worldwide vaccination

Question 18

1980s

Answer 18

-injuries and violence

Question 19

late 1980s

Answer 19

• control or minimize disease and health problems

- HIV/AIDS, Legionella

Question 20

1990s

Answer 20

• molecular and genetic epidemiology emerged

- Avian flu

Question 21

1990s to today

Answer 21

-consideration of deliberate spread of pathogens via biological warfare and bioterrorism

Question 22

2002

Answer 22

• SARS
• drug resistant bacteria
• Ebola

Question 23

2019 to present

Answer 23

-covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2)

Question 24

epidemiology definition (public health)

Answer 24

• study of distribution and determinants of disease in specific populations
• application of study to control health problems

Question 25

uses of epidemiology in public health

Answer 25

1. Prevention: raise public awareness | 2. Intervention: decrease cost of healthy food to promote healthier eating

Question 26

3 levels of public health prevention

Answer 26

1. Primary 2. Secondary 3. Tertiary

Question 27

primary prevention

Answer 27

- before a person gets a specific health outcome - can decrease prevalence, risk or rate ex. vaccinations

Question 28

secondary prevention

Answer 28

- after disease has occurred but no symptoms yet - find and treat disease early (potentially allowing for a cure) - health screening and detection eg. checking skin growths for cancer

Question 29

tertiary prevention

Answer 29

- person already has symptoms - focus to prevent damage and pain (slow progression) eg. dietary counselling for managing diabetes symptoms

Question 30

public health interventions

Answer 30

- evaluated using epidemiological methods 1. Individual 2. Structural

Question 31

individual interventions

Answer 31

- changing individual risk factors or behaviours | eg. education

Question 32

structural interventions

Answer 32

-changing physical, social or economic factors eg. provision of clean drinking water >tax on tobacco products

Question 33

Big Picture use of epidemiology

Answer 33

- assessing the community's health - making individual decisions - characterizing the clinical picture - searching for causes

Question 34

assessing community health

Answer 34

- policy's - relevant data - determine problems and risk - observe trends

Question 35

making individual decisions

Answer 35

- consciously and unconsciously by assessment of risk and what you have heard ex. stairs vs. elevator

Question 36

characterizing the clinical picture

Answer 36

- collaborative approach between physicians and epidemiologists - diagnosis at individual level (physician) - natural history of disease (epidemiologist) eg. characterization of SARS

Question 37

searching for causes

Answer 37

- may never prove a causal relationship but can gather enough evidence to support effective changes ex. remove pump handle during cholera outbreak

Question 38

4 'particles' (Hippocrates)

Answer 38

- earth (solid and cold) - air (dry) - fire (hot) - water (wet)

Question 39

4 bodily fluids: humors (Hippocrates)

Answer 39

1. Phlegm: earth and water 2. Yellow pile: fire and air 3. Blood: fire and water 4. Black bile: earth and air