Specificity of Teaching in the Section «General Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases» for Foreign Students

Abstract

Teaching the discipline «Epidemiology» to foreign students is associated with certain difficulties due to both the lack of equivalents in the English language of terms and concepts used in Russia and the historically established difference in approaches to studying the occurrence and spread of diseases in human society. Schematically, in English-language literature and textbooks on epidemiology, the process of the occurrence of diseases is described on the model of the epidemiological triangle, in Russian literature – historically on the model of the epidemic process, the founder of the doctrine of which is L.V. Gromashevsky. The epidemiological triad is represented by the interaction of a human host, agent and environment – the basis of the epidemic process are 3 elements: the source of infection, the transmission mechanism and the susceptible organism. At first glance, the model of the epidemic process and the epidemiological triangle are somewhat similar. However, the model of the epidemic process according to L.V. Gromashevsky more clearly indicates the population level of the phenomenon, and the epidemiological triangle pays more attention /emphasis on the properties of the pathogen and its interaction with the human body (the level of organism) in the external environment. Teaching in the section «General epidemiology of infectious diseases» teaching about the epidemic process for foreign students is advisable to build from universal models such as the epidemiological triad, harmoniously combining the epidemiology of infectious and non-communicable diseases, followed by the separation of these concepts and the introduction of specific terminology adopted in Russia (source of infection, epidemic focus, transmission mechanism, transmission pathways). At the same time, along with non- communicable diseases, the processes of the spread of infections associated with the provision of medical care, sapronoses are most significantly illustrated with the help of an epidemiological triangle.