HISTORY OF MEDICINE

General Module

Course Sheet

Course code:

IG12A4D

Academic Year of enrolment:

2018

Year of supply:

2018/2019

Type of Course:

Characterising

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in DENTAL HYGIENE

Disciplinary Sector:

History of Medicine

Is part of:

PREPARATORY SCIENCES

Location:

CHIETI

Credits:

Programme Year:

Professor and Collaborators:

D'ANASTASIO RUGGERO

Cycle:

Second semester

Obligatory attendance:

Yes

Hours of classroom activity:

Individual study hours:

Prerequisites:

No prerequisites

Objectives

The main task of the Dental Hygenist is to prevent and treat gum disease by providing instructions for maintaining good oral hygiene. He also takes care of general health by providing advice on behavioral patterns to be followed to prevent oral diseases.
Taking into account the tasks of the Dental Engineer, the course aims to transmit the knowledge related to the correlations between health and lifestyle, analyzed in a historical-evolutionary perspective.
In other words, the goal is to make students acquire the general concepts on the instability of human health over time. In particular, the Course responds to the need to provide the theoretical foundations of the laws with which human diseases evolve over long periods of time and the interrelation between human diseases (particularly those of the oral cavity) and ecosystems that have evolved and evolve on the Earth.
It is essential that the Dental Hygienist, at the beginning of his training, learn about the main stages through which human health has evolved, in order to identify in the past the motivations of the current situation and the trends towards which human diseases (and in particular those of the masticatory apparatus) evolve.

Contents

The course illustrates the origin and evolution of human pathologies, with particular attention paid to those of the oral cavity.
The course also highlights the relationships between the environment (understood in its broadest sense), biological characteristics of the guests and chemical-physical characteristics (and biological, in the case of living pathogens) of pathogens, necessary to identify fundamental epidemiological models, among other things, to design prevention policies.

Extended Syllabus

Introduction: History of Medicine and History of Pathology - Pathological systematics and paleopathology (the problem of nosography in human pathology, definition of pathological taxa) - Instability of diseases - Determinants of human diseases (ecological concept of disease). Determinative components of human diseases (ecological concept of disease).
Host, agent and environmental variability concept - Host-related instability, agent-related instability, environmental instability - Epidemiological equilibrium concept - Natural selection and human pathology. Pathocenosis - Laws of human patocenosis (Grmek's laws).
Fundamental concepts of the biological evolution of humans with particular regard to the inter-relationships between biological evolutionary stage and characteristically associated diseases - Population structure and pathocenosis - Overview of human populations’ demographic history (three productive economic phases in historical succession) with examples of demographic history - Disorders related to changes in demographic parameters (infant mortality, population density, birth rate, average life span), with particular attention paid to oral diseases. Production capacity, food resources, typology of socio-economic models and human pathocenosis - Concept of real biomass and critical biomass - The role of infectious diseases in the human ecosystem.
History of infectious diseases - Infectious diseases as a fundamental component of the evolving human ecosystem - The dynamic parasite / host - Concept of infectious disease The biological role of infectious diseases as a fundamental component of the evolving human ecosystem - Role of infectious diseases in natural selection - Epidemiological Transition Concept.
Origin and phylogenetic classification of current human pathogens - Elements of the evolution of the immune system.
Phylogenetic classification of current human diseases - Diseases due to endogenous causes (historical examples, with particular reference to the "side effects of biological evolution").
Diseases from exogenous cause (historical examples).

Recommended Bibliography

L. . Capasso, Principi di Storia della Patologia umana, SEU, Roma

Teaching Methods

Lectures

Evaluation methods

Verification of learning:

The verification of learning will take place through a closed-response test. The test consists of fifteen questions to assess both the knowledge on the history of human diseases and epidemiological models. The vote is expressed in thirtieths.

Contacts/More Information

Student reception on Monday at 12.00 am at the Operative Unit of Anthropology. Contacts: tel. 0871.3553502; e-mail: r.danastasio@unich.it

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree

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