TEACHING SPECIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND THE TASKS OF ANTIEPIDEMIC SERVICE OF THE POPULATION

Special epidemiology is of crucial importance in training practical epidemiologists. At the same time, most applied issues are considered in the section «Epidemiological Surveillance». Its distinctive feature is the profile principle of work organization. In line with this assumption, the analytical work of an epidemiologist lacks diagnostic consistency with a nosological entity. This gives rise to a wide variety of negative consequences. There are no clear insights into the typical incidence of many infections, which makes the diagnosis of the uncharacteristic routes and mechanisms of their morbidity difficult. The morbidity cannot be considered for consistency with known mechanisms (by analogy or by agreement) in the situations when it is based on clinical diagnoses. To improve analytical work, a teaching process should include the differential diagnosis of different nosological entities. This is achieved through workshops considering comparatively two infections. The considered pair is formed both by similarity and distinctions (similarity/distinction) of major signs used to classify diseases.

special epidemiology, epidemiological surveillance, epidemiological diagnosis