Theories of Disease Causation, Research Paper Example

The first theory of disease causation is the one attributed top the evil spirits as well as supernatural beings. The sick people were taken as being possessed by the demons. As per the teachings of the bible, there were instances of the isolation of the lepers which contributed to the reduction of leprosy as the first stages of quarantine. The idea behind the move was the effective of isolation in the prevention of the spread of the diseases (Hamann, 2007)

This was the beginning of the second related to contagion whose acceptance was to increase in the near future. This led to the introduction of natural in contrast to the supernatural disease occurrence explanation which took place during the 4^th century B.C. this was referred to as the humoral theory. Several years passed by before people cold gain the full awareness of the contagious nature of majority of diseases and the possibility for their transmission from individual to the other. More difficulty was in the identification of the agents responsible for the transmission of the disease. (Hamann, 2007)

Germ theory was the third disease causation theory with a characteristic marking of the onset of infectious diseases conquest. A high level of its acceptance was responsible for the progress in fathoming the nature of diseases leading to a significant decline in the proliferation of diseases. The fourth theory modern theory responsible for multiple causation whose major emphasis is the expansion of the agent of the disease for the purpose of designating the factors that needs to be incorporated or be removed for the occurrence of the disease to take place (Hamann, 2007)

The scientific understanding of disease causation is based on the following:

• The discovery of the actual cause behind the occurrence of the disease
• The establishment of the relevant patterns responsible for the occurrence of the disease
• Recommendations of the possible steps that can be followed for the purpose of the prevention, elimination as well as control of the disease.

All this is the duty of the epidemiologists whose responsibilities is addressing the issues of diseases of any nature ranging from endemic, epidemic, or even  pandemic (Hamann, 2007)

Reference

Hamann (2007) Principles of Disease Occurrence Chapter 2. McGraw-Hill Companies available at        https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/ereader.aspx?assetmetaid=1 f88c079-c8c2-40c6-80f1-adbc3b4dbb2f&assetdataid=fcab3a30-b7f7-4a1f-8cfc-f289fd21a3da accessed on 06 Nov. 2009.