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common disease becamerare. While many of the public health supports that we took for granted are
gone now, much of the knowledge remains and we are putting those supports back into place just as
quickly as we can. I'd like to talk with you today about how public health developed, how we got to
where we were and where we are moving toward in the future. As you learn about these measures, you
could become soldiers in an invisible war against diseases that have been the scourge of humankind from
time immemorial.
"Public health efforts focus on measures that prevent illness or injury, track disease outbreaks, and
promote life and maximum functionality in groups of people. I'd like to talk with you today about historic
developments in public health history and how those have led to changes in public health practice. I'll be
focusing on three areas primarily: epidemiology, public health measures and vaccination. Obviously, this
will be a brief introduction to what can be a very complex subject.
"Epidemiology is a cornerstone of public health. Epidemiology gives us a way to study how factors
which affect health and illness are distributed in a given community or population. Epidemiology is really a
form of research and uses many of the same methods as research. The epidemiologist collects a variety
of data from many sources in order to identify at risk populations and to prevent or ameliorate the spread
of disease and illness and promote health."
So far no one looked lost. She turned on the computer she'd borrowed from Hayes and pulled up the
first slide. "Hippocrates was the first known epidemiologist. In fact, Hippocrates was far more accurate in
his perceptions about public health and the spread of communicable diseases than about his medical
treatments. He developed a number of principles of epidemiology that are still important. Hippocrates
gave very accurate descriptions of diseases in his practice. He also wrote about natural factors such as
water supplies that are important to consider in public health. He stressed that clinicians should be
observant and should consider lifestyle factors such as activity in treating illnesses. He noticed that certain
disease occurred at certain places or times of year. We'll talk more about some of these things as class
progresses today."
Beulah paused for a sip of water and let the students catch up a bit on their notes. She hoped that
hearing a familiar name and that he had contributed relevant, accurate information to public health would
reassure her audience that all they knew didn't have to be relearned. Some but not all of it had later been
proven inaccurate. Hayes had found copies of Hippocrates' Epidemics I and Epidemics II that were
being translated. She planned to use some of it in the developing curriculum. Not only was some of it still
relevant, but use of some "classics" added legitimacy to the things they were teaching and were still
relevant. She was acutely aware that in the long term, there was more involved here than just the
university atJena . She also wanted to make the point that they all stood as it were, "on the shoulders of
giants." Knowledge had been created, lost, accepted, ignored and tested in various ways, moving
forward in fits and starts. Such was the nature of scientific advances.
"Did you all have a chance to attend the sanitation committee meetings?"
Most of those present nodded. James had commented that there hadn't been so many people at the
committee meeting last week for over a year.We take the risk of infection too lightly. We're too used
to antibiotics and clean streets and an immunized population. So we don't pay attention to them.
Despite all the preparation we've been trying to do, most of our people still have, at most, an
intellectual understanding of an epidemic. Even the oldest of us, who ought to remember our
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younger years, aren't immune to that attitude. She shared the fears of James and the others. It was
only a matter of time until they were hit here in Grantville. How bad it would be depended in part on how
prepared their neighbors were.There's never enough time to get everything done. There are too few
of us, spread too thin. We should be having programs like this all over the USE. At least this is
being videotaped. I've got to talk with James and the others on the sanitation committee about [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]