Basic Epidemiology 1

Msg# : 821 Wed 28 Jun 89 8:49p
From : Robert Lee
To : All
Subject: Basic epidemiology.1
Status :

BASIC CONCEPTS IN EPIDEMIOLOGY

Epidemiology is nothing other than the scientific method applied to a given disease entity. The scientific method simplified consists of only four basic steps. These steps are: 1) recognize a problem; 2) make initial observations; 3) hypothesize, and; 4) test the hypothesis. In epidemiology this scientific method is applied in three different “waves.” The first wave involves determining the origin of the offending disease entity; the second, the transmission of the disease entity; and third, the prevention and/or alterations of conditions leading to the genesis/transmission of the offending agent. This is epidemiology in a nutshell. Successful epidemiological investigation requires all of these steps being done; moreover, the scientific method, in its strictest objective and rational sense, must be employed. Failure to adhere to the scientific method and failure to move through all “waves” will result in improper epidemiological investigations of a disease agent.

We are now in the era of AIDS or “HIV disease.” The offending agent, HIV-1, is moving quickly through the populations in Africa, Europe, South and North America. Estimated fatalities caused by this agent by 2000 range between 25 to 75 million persons in the United States alone. The resulting social and economic ruination will, no doubt, approximate something not unlike that resulting from thermonuclear war. It is therefore apparent that each person has a responsibility in this plague. That responsibility is best understood in terms of epidemiology.

What areas, then, of epidemiology are important and which areas should the layperson and collectives groups pursue? There are many.