The Six Core Functions Of Epidemiology

When the pandemic broke, Dr. Cheever committed to several questionable decisions or courses of action that had or could have had negative impacts on the public health. One of these was when he dispatched Dr. Erin Mears from the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) to investigate on the recent outbreak in Minnesota. The EIS, also referred to as the CDC’s Disease Detectives, serves as the first line of defense and investigation of the agency. It is actually a 2-year training program on applied epidemiology, undertaken by 70 to 80 selected physicians, doctoral-level scientists, veterinarians, and other health professionals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). EIS Officers are the ones who should be ready to respond in case of outbreak, as Dr. Mears did. EIS Officers have the responsibility of identifying causes of outbreaks, recommending preventive and control measures against them, and implementing strategies to protect

CTVNews released an article on September 7, 2016 regarding the findings in a study published in Jama Pediatrics. The study was conducted in the United States linking babies born by caesarean section (C-section) to an increased likelihood of becoming obese.1 C-section is a procedure used during high-risk pregnancies. This method of delivery is an option; however, it may be associated with negative health outcomes. The news story sheds light on the findings and illustrates a 15% increased likelihood of a child becoming obese when born by C-section instead of vaginal delivery.1 The heightened risk was primarily significant amongst siblings. The findings depict a 64% increased likelihood of becoming obese when born by C-section as opposed to siblings who are delivered vaginally.1 In addition, the news story details that vaginal births after previous C-section deliveries has a 31% less likelihood of the child becoming.1

It is the study of the causes and risk factors of diseases or health status, and how it is distributed in the population given a geographic location (CDC, 2016). It aids in prognosticating, diagnosing and identifying health risks. It also helps identify community health needs that the FNP can address, initiate programs/solutions, and provide appropriate preventive measures. Knowledge of communicable disease incidence and prevalence will guide an FNP to recommend age appropriate immunizations. For example, the CDC recommends that children from birth to 15 months should receive immunization for Hepatitis B, Rotavirus, DTaP, Hib, MMR, Hepatitis A, Influenza, Varicella, Pneumococcal conjugate, and Inactivate poliovirus (2017). This strategy has significantly reduced the “incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality of many communicable diseases” in Western nations (Ventola, 2016, p. 426). For each U.S. birth group that receives the recommended childhood immunizations, about 20 million illnesses and over 40,000 deaths are prevented, saving about $70 billion of healthcare cost (Ventola, 2016). It will also guide the FNP on what diseases or illnesses her patients should be screened for to diagnose a disease early. This is a secondary prevention strategy. Early diagnosis leads to early treatment and intervention, preventing the natural progression of the disease, avoiding or minimizing the disease’s debilitating effects which

In this session long project, the class was instructed to watch a video on the introduction to public health and to answer three questions. What are the three core functions of public health? What are the essential services associated with each of these? What agencies (federal, state, or local) are responsible for carrying out these core functions and essential services? In the paper below these questions will be answered in reference to the E-learning video while using the provided sources.

Epidemiological surveillance is a surveillance system can be viewed as an early warning system for the public, it requires that all notifiable diseases be reported to their local health department as soon as someone is diagnosed. This helps epidemiologist detect an epidemic at an early stage and enables them to take the necessary measures to control the spread of known diseases as well as new ones (Schneider & Schneider, 2017). This system also allows epidemiologists to set goals and track the progress and effectiveness of any of the interventions that have been implemented within the population (Who.int, 2017).

Allowing communities to detect prevalence, and having access to resources to do this, can improve the standard of living and also allows education to develop surrounding the sources of these infections (De La Rica & Stevens, 2012).

How public health professionals find way to educate the world about diseases that are present on earth is still challenging issues because of the many factors that influence global health. Scientist such as Pardis Sabeti is just some of the people that the world needs to help fight the outbreaks of the future. Preparing the public and collaboration between researchers and those on the front-line fighting disease outbreaks will be the key essential area to focus on for the future of Public

Epidemiology, the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of a disease. Epidemiology is used through out the world, whether that be to protect a country from a lethal disease or educating the people about the common cold, epidemiologist protect the world from disease as a whole. This is highlighted in the most recent outbreak of the Zika Virus in Brazil and the Ebola Sudan outbreak illustrated in the Hot Zone. Even though these disease have there similarities and differences epidemiologists have done that is possible to protect the populous of the world. Though both disease have common ground, both are extremely different from one another based on the symptoms and over effect on the human body.

Vulnerable populations are "those with a greater than average risk of developing health problems by virtue of their marginalized socio-cultural status, their limited access to economic resources, or personal characteristics such as age and gender" (De Chesnay & Anderson, 2008). Infants and young children are vulnerable to a host of healthcare problems, they are susceptible to viral infection especially respiratory infection such as Respiratory Syncytial Virus. In this paper, the author will define and describe epidemiological triangle as it relates to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), types of epidemiology, and levels of prevention of RSV.

According to the Center of Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), by definition, epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and health outcomes in populations. Several methods can be used to carry out epidemiological investigation includes surveillance and descriptive study and analytical studies are used to study determinants (CDC, 2012). Determinants can be categorized as causes and risk factors that influence the pandemic of a disease. According to the World Health Organization, a risk factor is any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease (WHO, 2016). Various key elements that are critical to epidemiology are that it focuses on populations. Understanding why certain individuals have a high risk for diseases and why certain populations have more diseases or poorer health than other populations are essential to epidemiology. A second component that is very important to epidemiology is the association to public health practice and action, which results can be used to create interventions to improve the public’s health.

In Epidemiology studies the important demographic information will include age, sex, marital status, race, ethnicity, and religion and socioeconomic status. Age is considered the most important factor and is

Data gathered from morbidity and mortality have been used to implement health prevention strategies in many ways. Aschengrau & Seage (2014), noted that mortality and morbidity and can be used to study fatal illnesses on a national, state, city or neighborhood level (Aschengrau & Seage, 2014). This information have been used by researchers, epidemiologists and health care providers to develop prevention strategies to decrease adverse health outcomes. In addition, epidemiological surveys have been used to establish the mortality rates from specific diseases, allowing efficient use of limited public health funds for control of those diseases having the greatest negative impact on the health of the community. For example, an epidemiological

Beside my coursework, I took two internships in multi-culture research institutes, participated in several research projects and conducted my own field work. These experience provided me with the ability to conduct public health research and statistical analysis, and narrowed my interest on epidemiology. From these experience, I gradually realized that to deal with diseases, especially NCDs, the problem of NCDs, both well-organized researched to elucidate the determinants of chronic diseases in populations and identify the risk factors and high-risk population, and effective intervention, as well as policies, are indispensable needed. To achieve these goals, it is necessary to have a deeper understanding of epidemiological methodologies, health system and policy, in addition to quantitative and qualitative analytical

The purpose of this module is to review the role of epidemiology in public health practice. Despite the fact that epidemiology is a broad field, this module is intended to introduce the basic concepts of epidemiology.

The differences that I see between the essential functions of monitoring health and diagnosing and investigating health problems are that monitoring health is one part of the ten essential public health services and it is a to identify and solve community health problems. They take care of the utilization and costs. Also, they give attention to vital statistics and health surveys surveillance, including reportable disease by measures the life expectancy, health adjusted life expectancy (HALE), mortality rate, and Infant mortality