Periodization of the History of Epidemiology and the Formation of an Interdisciplinary Stage in the Development of This Preventive Discipline

Abstract

The article discusses the process of formation and further development of epidemiology at a new post-classical stage in the formation of science. In the first period of the formation of science (XVII century), its activities were carried out only through the intra-disciplinary development of knowledge, and its last stage (post-classical period falling on the present) is based on the development of interdisciplinary ties. This approach allows us to identify previously seemingly distant and purely specific subject areas and discover new research subjects that cannot be discovered and accordingly used in internal disciplinary analysis. In the post-classical period of science, the formation of modern epidemiology occurs, in the development of which three main periods are distinguished: the pre-bacteriological, bacteriological and modern stage, which determines the population approach when studying a diverse pathology. The transformations taking place in epidemiology contribute to the convergence of this science with clinical medicine, which should bring this preventive medicine to a higher level of development. Epidemiology in the post-classical period of science can be expected to move to a new stage of its development, which will be based on an interdisciplinary generalization of infectious and non-infectious pathology.