Public Health Science and Human Anatomy Fundamentals

Disease Detectives: Epidemiology and Surveillance

Types of Public Health Surveillance

Passive surveillance relies on healthcare providers to report cases, making it cost-effective but prone to underreporting. Active surveillance involves health agencies actively seeking reports to ensure accurate data collection, often used during outbreaks. Sentinel surveillance monitors specific health events through selected providers, offering detailed but limited data. Syndromic surveillance focuses on symptoms rather than confirmed diagnoses, using real-time data to detect outbreaks.

The Five Steps of Surveillance

• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Data interpretation
• Data dissemination
• Link to action

Pioneering Scientists in Medicine

• Robert Koch: Father of bacteriology; identified the causes of tuberculosis (TB) and cholera.
• Jonas Salk: Developed the polio vaccine.
• Edward Jenner: Developed the concept of vaccines and the smallpox vaccine.
• William Farr: Associated with the observation that citrus prevents scurvy.
• Louis Pasteur: Developed pasteurization and the vaccine for rabies.
• John Snow: Father of epidemiology.

Key Epidemiological Terms

• R0 Value: The number of infections caused by one infected person.
• Virulence: The ability of a pathogen to damage a host.
• Incidence: The number of new cases of a disease during a prescribed time.
• Incubation: A controlled environment to allow an organism to develop.
• Hawthorne Effect: Behavior changes because subjects are being observed.
• Vector: An organism that transmits a pathogen from one host to another.
• Fomite: An inanimate object that carries a pathogen.
• Zoonosis: A disease transmitted from animals to humans.
• Chromatography: A technique for separating a mixture into its components.
• Latent Period: The time between when one becomes infected and when one becomes infectious.
• Symbiosis: A close association between two or more species.
  • Parasitism: One benefits while the other is harmed.
  • Commensalism: One organism benefits while the other is neither harmed nor helped.

Essential Vaccines and Prevention

• MMR: Measles, mumps, and rubella.
• DTP: Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough).
• BCG: Prevents tuberculosis (TB).
• OPV: Oral polio vaccine; prevents polio.
• HBV: Prevents Hepatitis B.

Hill's Criteria for Causation

Nine criteria must be met to establish a cause-and-effect relationship:

1. Strength of Association: The relationship is clear and the risk estimate is high.
2. Consistency: Observation of the association must be repeatable in different populations at different times.
3. Specificity: A single cause produces a specific effect.
4. Alternative Explanations: Consideration of multiple hypotheses before making conclusions about causality.
5. Temporality: The cause or exposure must precede the effect or outcome.
6. Dose-Response Relationship: An increasing amount of exposure increases the risk.
7. Biological Plausibility: The association agrees with the current understanding of biological processes.
8. Experimental Evidence: The condition can be altered (prevented or accelerated) by an experimental process.
9. Coherence: The association should be compatible with existing theory and knowledge.

Koch's Postulates for Microbes

Designed to establish a causal relationship between a causative microbe and a disease:

1. The microbe must be present in abundance in all cases of the disease, but not in healthy organisms.
2. The microbe must be isolated from the diseased organism and grown in pure culture.
3. The cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism.
4. The microbe must be reisolated from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and identified as identical to the original agent.

Anatomy and Physiology Fundamentals

Skin and the Integumentary System

• Skin makes up approximately 15% of total body weight.
• The surface area of human skin is 1.5–2 square meters.
• Keratin makes the skin waterproof.
• Melanin determines skin and hair color.
• ABCDE of Skin Cancer: Asymmetry, Border, Color, Diameter (over 6 mm), and Evolving (changes in color, shape, or texture).
• Hair grows approximately half an inch per month.

Muscular and Skeletal Systems

• Eye Defects: Short-sightedness (myopia) and long-sightedness (hypermetropia).
• Muscle Filaments: Actin and troponin control muscle movements.
• Sartorius: The longest muscle in the human body (hip to knee).
• Stapedius: The smallest muscle in the human body (located in the ear).
• Atlas: The first vertebra of the spinal column.
• Vertebrae: The human spinal column consists of 33 vertebrae.
• Bones: There are 206 bones in the adult human body.
• Stapes: The smallest bone in the human body (located in the ear).
• Five Functions of the Skeletal System: Support, protection, movement, mineral storage, and blood cell production.
• 16.

The Endocrine and Exocrine Glands

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0 The Endocrine System is a series of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Any gland that secretes directly into the blood is called an endocrine gland. An exocrine gland is one that secretes hormones into a duct. The pancreas is an example of both kinds because it secretes different hormones through different channels.