HISTORY OF MEDICINE

General Module

Course Sheet

Course code:

IG12A4D

Academic Year of enrolment:

2021

Year of supply:

2021/2022

Type of Course:

Characterising

Degree:

Course of 1st Cycle Degree in DENTAL HYGIENE

Disciplinary Sector:

History of Medicine

Is part of:

DEMO-ETHNO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL DISCIPLINES

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. 0871.3553518; e-mail: r.danastasio@unich.it

Università degli Studi
"G. d'Annunzio"

Chieti - Pescara

Aree

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