lecture 12 - epidemiology Flashcards
what is epidemiology?
- study of distribution of health-related states and event in a specified population
(study of disease progression within a population)
Who are the 2 early epidemiologists?
- Snow - Mid 1800’s - Cholera contaminated well (Father of epidemiology)
- Florence Nightingale - Mother of modern nursing and epidemiology
what should epidemiology be?
- Descriptive - acquire all data about disease
- Analytical - Analyze a disease to try to determine ethology (through cohort and case control)
- experimental - hypothesis testing
what is ethology?
- study of disease and its origin
what are notifiable diseases?
infections that must be reported to a public health body if they are found
what is morbidity?
incidence of specific notifiable diseases
what is mortality?
- deaths caused by these notifiable diseases
what are the steps to koch’s postulates?
- MOs are isolated from a diseased/dead animal
- MO is grown in pure culture/MO is identified
- MO injected into healthy lab animal
- Disease reproduces in animal
- MO is isolated from animal and grown in pure culture/MO is identified
what is a communicable disease?
spreads between hosts
- ex. chickenpox, measles, herpes
what is a non communicable disease?
doesn’t spread between hosts - is more dangerous
- ex. Clostridium tetani, Cryptococcus gattii
what is an incidence?
a new infection
what is prevalence?
- new and existing infections (rate @ which something occurs in a particular population)
sporadic?
only shows up occasionally
endemic?
always present in particular environment
epidemic?
many new infections in an area over a short period of time