Epidemiology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Epidemiology - Essay Example The professionals in this field rely on biostatistics, biology, disciplines of social science, and assessment of exposure. Epidemiologists involve themselves in study design, data collection, statistical analysis of the data collected, and interpretation of the results, as well as the distribution of the results. This dissemination can be done in systematic reviews, which are occasional, and peer reviewed articles. It helps to inform institutions on policy decisions and medicine that is evidence based via the identification of disease risk factors and preventive medicine targets. This paper aims to take two case studies and address how epidemiology was concerned with efforts to describe, explain, predict, and control the examples. Anthrax is caused by Bacillus anthracis and has been known for more than a few thousand years (Preston, 2002). The causative organism was first described in the 1850s and was used as poof by Koch of Henle’s postulates. The first anthrax vaccines were developed by Toussiant and Greenfield, and the public demonstration was handled by Louis Pasteur in the year 1881 (Preston, 2002). The two vaccines exist in both human and animal form. Bacillus anthracis is a Gram-positive, spore forming, capsulated rod and survives by killing other cells. Its spores can survive for decades in the environment. Its pathogenicity depends on the pX01 and the pX02 plasmids, and it has two key strains. Strain A is found all over the world, while strain B is limited essentially to the southern part of Africa (Preston, 2002). Anthrax acts on the body cells by releasing toxins (Preston, 2002). PA or protective antigen binds itself to the receptor of the host cell, after which furin cleaves off and lets PA20 go free. PA83 undergoes heptamer formation with the enzymes acting as toxin binding to PA63. It is internalized into the cell via endocytosis that is receptor mediated. Acidification of this endosome is causes there to be