Epidemi-what?

My boyfriend wants me to blog.

Somehow, I don’t have much to say lately. I’ve been enjoying unemployed life. Work starts on Monday! I only have 4 more days of freedom! Yikes!

**edit: Work starts a week from Monday. They pushed back my start date because I need to get fingerprinted and get a physical first. **

I can’t believe that I’m actually an epidemiologist. Not a program coordinator, but an epidemiologist. I have a profession. Granted, it’s a profession that most people don’t know anything about. The most common question I get when people ask me what exactly an epidemiologist is: “Do you study skin?” (Although, most of the time, it’s Allen being an ass and jumping in and asking that.). So, here we go kids. Your first (or for all you other PH people out there maybe your eight millionth) public health lesson.

Epidemiology (or just epi). From my epi 1 textbook:

“Epidemiology is the study of how disease is distributed in populations and the factors that influence or determine this distribution.”

The five main objectives of epi are:
1) to identify the etiology of the cause of a disease and the risk factors for a disease
2) to determine the extent of disease found in the community
3) to study the natural history and prognosis of disease
4) to evaluate both existing and new preventive and therapeutic measures and modes of health care delivery
5) to provide the foundations for developing public policy and making regulatory decisions relating to environmental problems.

Clear as mud?

Basically, I’ll be investigating outbreaks of diseases (West Nile, flu, etc.) and also helping develop policy for the county in terms of health services, disparities, and emerging diseases.

Ok, no more work talk.