I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

--Steve Jobs

I don’t know if other people also have the same feeling that I do. That is, when I look back one year, I usually find me at that time not being very smart. I made some bad choices, did some stupid things, and had some unmatured ideas. The most frequent example is, I usually laughed at my comments I left for some pictures or people on the blog, on facebook, or on twitter. Sometimes the comment was only a month old. I cannot imagine why I was so naïve to leave such comment that I am so shamed for when I see it today. That is some comment I would never write if I was today’s me at that time. I hope I am not the only person who has this kind of feeling. I hope this can be concluded as growth, isn’t it?

Speaking of “I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger,” the one thing off the top of my head is I wish I was more prepared for the college. Back to summer time in 2009, I was taking English class. My naïve thought at that time was, English was the most difficult class I would encounter in four-year college study. My burden would be gone after I go through the six weeks of English class. The cause of my childish thought could even be traced back to two years ago, which was 2007, when I was taking ESL (English as Second Language) class. At that time, this is only course that we could enroll. This left me with the thought that English was the most difficult course, after I finish this course, nothing else would be a problem to me. Turns out I was so wrong, one stupid thought led to a nasty result, I did not get very good grades for courses I’ve taken in the past three years. If I had a time machine, I wish I could go back and tell myself, “You should treat every class evenly, think less, do more work!”

Got time machine?

Epidemiology and public health

Epidemiology and history

I’ve looked up in both Webster online dictionary and Wikipedia for the definition of epidemiology. Turns out, Webster defines the term better, yet Wikipedia enriches the definition with supplementary context. Dealing with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in a population, epidemiology is a branch of medical science (Webster online dictionary). I have an example here that helps me understand the concept more clearly. Back in 1854, cholera was raging in London which had caused more than 500 deaths in 10 days. People believed that the disease was transmitted through air, so they couldn’t come up with a good solution to stop the outbreak. However after careful investigation, Dr. John Snow, who was a physician at that time, noticed that there was a higher death rate around a well on Broad Street. Turns out, the disease was transmitted through water not air. Therefore after the contaminated pump was removed, the outbreak was finally stopped (Wikipedia). The whole process above is defined as an epidemiological event which includes investigation, treatment and control. In fact, this very event is perceived as the founding case of the science of epidemiology.

Original map by John Snow showing the clusters of cholera cases in the London epidemic of 1854

Role in public health

Enough for history, so what is the role in public health today then? The answer is it is an essential part. In the context of public health, epidemiology is a cornerstone that provides information on policy decision, evidence-based medicine, as well as preventive medicine with regards to disease outbreak, investigation, surveillance, screening and biomonitoring (Wikipedia). Epidemiology does not only deal with one or two cases of a disease, it is about disease control, treatment, and prevention among a population.

Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network

Since we are students who deal with animals, let’s what we have in this area with regards to epidemiology.

The Alberta Veterinary Surveillance Network (AVSN) is a comprehensive, integrated surveillance program supporting producers, private veterinarians and a team of animal disease experts to address livestock and poultry disease issues that affect industry, food safety and public health. It is part of the Canadian Animal Health Surveillance Network for laboratories, supports national surveillance and provides continuous and timely notification of important diseases as they occur. (Government of Alberta, Agriculture and Rural Development)

This network is necessary, because people rely on animals more and more in every aspect nowadays, including work/service, companion, and what is always essential, food product. Animals and people are so closely bounded today, therefore if the epidemiological events are not handled well between us and animals, outbreak diseases like SARS, avian flu, and swine flu H1N1 will happen again without doubts.