The history of epidemiology - Essay Example

Order 303975 THE HISTORY OF EPIDEMIOLOGY Introduction Epidemiology is an organized method of knowing the link among assorted issues that establish the occurrence and spread of diseases, resulting to what is commonly known as outbreak. Epidemiology is often characterized as a modern medical discipline in the 19th century. Most likely, people are not aware of the long history that led to the current status of epidemiology as a discipline in medicine. Body In the field of medicine, epidemiology is as old as Anton van Leeuwenhoek, 1632-1723, a merchant.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of 'animalcules' from the white material he got from his teeth encouraged successive studies and findings on the existence of organisms that cause diseases as well as the spread of the same organisms in nature. Leeuwenhoek fabricated about 500 different lenses of varied multiplier capabilities in terms of the size of the organisms which he studied. With the lenses, he confirmed the existence of organisms, a lot smaller than what any human eye can see, in some places like pond water, blood, seminal fluid, and diarrheal stools (Engelkirk and Burton, 2007).

In 1822-1895, Louis Pasteur, a French who became proficient in Chemistry while working at perfecting fermentation process for wine production discovered that there are organisms that can survive in the absence of oxygen, so long as there is abundant food for growth, development and multiplication. Among his other discoveries, Pasteur, a chemist, established the concept that a particular organism can cause a specific disease, for example, rabies. To control the spread of the organisms and the spread of the disease, Pasteur in one of his experiments' accidentally developed anti-rabies vaccine.

After application, the vaccine saved the life of a boy who was bitten by a dog infested by the virus rabies. The vaccine made the recipient actively resistant to rabies infection (Engelkirk and Burton, 2007). In 1843-1910, Robert Koch, a German Medical Physician by profession further established the concept that indeed organisms that can not be seen with the unaided eyes like Mycobacterium tuberculosis exists and is the causative organisms of the disease called tuberculosis. Koch successfully isolated Mycobacterium tuberculosis and extracted the protein tuberculin.

Tuberculin since then has been used for the diagnosis of the disease called tuberculosis. With subsequent experimentations, Koch wrote the steps he took to identify other organisms that have caused human diseases (Engelkirk and Burton, 2007). Robert Koch's theories on the laboratory culture of organisms led to the current ease with which diseases can be confirmed to be caused by organisms as well as the mode with which such organisms are transferred from one host to the other. Moreover, the procedures and findings also led to the standardization of the concepts on conditions under which a particular organism infect, grow, develop, and multiply in specific reservoirs.

Conclusion Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Louis Pasteur, and Robert Koch are the 16th, 17th and 18th century famous experts that contributed to the emergence of the 19th century science of epidemiology. Their contributions are invaluable to the current body of knowledge on the connection among assorted issues that created the incidence and spread of diseases. Reference Engelkirk, Paul G. and Gwendolyn R. W. Burton. (2007). Burton's Microbiology for the Health Sciences. 8th ed. United States of America: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.