Introduction
Public health has become a popular topic of discussion since the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China. To study the implications of the virus and how it affects the population, scientists and doctors rely on the discipline called epidemiology. The professionals in the field are the most critical actors in investigating the origins of the virus and monitoring the dynamics of its distribution. Epidemiology relies significantly on data and uses an objective approach to collecting and analyzing the information.
John Snow, who is considered the founder of epidemiology, used scientific methods to identify the source of cholera in London. His case demonstrates the efficacy of this scientific discipline in assessing public health, identifying causes of communicable illnesses and predicting the distribution of epidemics. This reflective summary analyzes Snow’s approach and explains how he used the activities of descriptive epidemiology to conclude that water contamination was the reason behind the cholera outbreak.
Epidemiology Overview
Epidemiology is the foundational building block of public health because it studies the distribution of diseases, their causes, and determinants of health. In contemporary society, epidemiology significantly influences public policies by identifying risk groups for taking preventative actions (Bhopal, 2016). This discipline is known to be free of bias because it relies primarily on quantitative data and statistical methods. Advancements in microbiology have shaped epidemiology because it gave necessary knowledge and tools to understand the nature of diseases and predict how it spreads under different environments (Giesecke, 2017).
For instance, the development of microscopes allowed epidemiologists to discover the sources of many communicable diseases, such as cholera. Modern epidemiologists work on designing research, collection of data, statistical analysis, drawing conclusions based on the available information and knowledge from other fields, such as biology, sociology, and computer science (Bhopal, 2016). Despite the vast array of activities, epidemiology’s primary areas of interest are the distribution of diseases and health determinants.
Understanding the distribution and determinants of diseases is the primary goal of epidemiology. The distribution consists of the frequency, which is the number of cases and its relationship to the population’s size, and pattern, which describes the issue in terms of time, place, and person (Giesecke, 2017). Determinants are factors affecting the health conditions; for instance, an unfavorable physical environment may be the cause of some chronic illnesses, such as cardiovascular diseases (Bhopal, 2016). By analyzing the data on the distribution of cholera in London, and identifying possible determinants, John Snow, despite the initial neglection of his ideas, proved that water contamination was the primary source of cholera.
John Snow and the Cholera Outbreak
John Snow is known to be the father of modern epidemiology not only for his passion for understanding the causes of the cholera outbreak in London but also for his usage of sound scientific methods. As Henry Whitehead, a member of a committee of the St. James Parish stated, he did not initially agree with Snow’s theory but was fond of Snow’s straightforward but sound methods (Vanchon, 2005). During the initial stages of his work, Snow analyzed the frequency of the disease’s distribution. While many people at that time would be concerned with the total number of death episodes in different areas, Snow compared the number of deaths to the size of the areas’ populations.
This method allowed Snow to understand which areas were most affected by cholera and work on identifying common patterns. Primarily, understanding disease occurrences in varying populations allowed Snow to divide those populations into different geographical areas and analyze various characteristics of each region. Areas with a higher ratio of cholera incidents had water pumps that were connected to sources potentially contaminated by sewage.
This discovery led Snow to propose that water contamination was the reason behind the cholera outbreak. His views were supported by time patterns – outbreaks did not occur systematically but sporadically. Some events aligned with the periods when water companies started using polluted sources. When Snow became sure that water was the primary means of the spread of the disease, he started working on identifying determinants of cholera.
Snow knew that impurities that contaminate the water were the primary cause, but could not prove his point due to technological constraints of that time. Only after several decades, Robert Koch, a German microbiologist, rediscover the cholera-causing bacterium Vibrio cholerae (Vanchon, 2005). Koch’s discovery proved Snow’s theory of the existence of germs that were contaminating water in London and causing cholera. Despite limitations in technology, Snow was able to discover the cause of cholera’s distribution and propose that water was contaminated by unfavorable microscopic organisms.
Conclusion
Modern epidemiology is a significant discipline because it encompasses all health events that can negatively affect the population. It can be considered unbiased because it only relies on statistical methods and data. With these two instruments only, John Snow, a father of epidemiology, was able to design a study, collect relevant information on the distribution and patterns of the cholera outbreak, which would later prove that water contaminated with disease-causing microorganisms was the reason behind the epidemic.
References
Bhopal, R. S. (2016). Concepts of epidemiology: integrating the ideas, theories, principles, and methods of epidemiology. Oxford University Press.
Giesecke, J. (2017). Modern infectious disease epidemiology. CRC Press.
Vanchon, D. (2005). Doctor John Snow blames water pollution for the cholera epidemic. Web.