ABSTRACT
What is epidemiology? The exact tabulation and analysis of patterns of disease spread throughout populations is what is generally involved in epidemiology. In technical terms, the definition is: the study of disease, and of disease attributes, in defined populations. Thus, it deals with both the distribution and the aetiology of disease. Originally, about a century ago, it was concerned solely with such rapidly contagious diseases as typhoid and cholera. Today, epidemiology also embraces the study of non-communicable diseases, as well as contagious diseases.
