Today, epidemiology is a valuable field of study which plays a role in eradicating diseases. It helps us prevent outbreaks, craft preventative measures and treat illnesses.
But, it wasn’t so long ago that the world didn’t have this practice and suffered much more drastic consequences from each case of sickness.
Stories of the most rudimentary vaccines stretch back a few hundred years, but epidemiology is a bit younger.
Described by Merriam Webster as, “medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in a population,” epidemiology’s origins are largely credited to legendary Victorian doctor John Snow. His claim to fame in discovering that cholera is spread by a parasite through contaminated water or food. Snow’s work even earned the nickname “the father of epidemiology.”