ABSTRACT
Epidemiology is an applied science and is fundamental to health promotion and disease prevention activity. Its concepts, theories, and methodologies are derived from other disciplines and put to use during epidemiological investigations and studies (Stone et al., 1996). Customarily, professionals in public health, medicine, nursing, health science, environmental health, and the allied health fields study epidemiology. They emerge as epidemiologists who investigate and control the occurrence of diseases and other health-affecting conditions. Many have earned master’s degrees in public health and received additional training in epidemic intelligence services. They have been assigned the moniker “disease detectives” and are dramatically portrayed in the media. Realistically, many epidemiologists are community health nurses responding to local disease outbreaks, infection control specialists maintaining health care standards, environmental health managers monitoring the quality of living conditions, etc. Epidemiologists can be investigators, researchers, clinicians, and even public policymakers. They wrest diseases, protect the public, and promote the health of communities.
