The timeline of epidemiological milestones in public health are
as follows,
- 500 BC - Hippocrates - first epidemiologist, father of
medicine, coined the term epidemic
- 1620 AD - John Graunt - father of demography and descriptive
epidemiology, collection of data
- 1624 - Thomas Sydenham - studied epidemics, noted association
between fleas and typhus fever
- 1790 - Edward Jenner - developed vaccine for small pox
- 1820 - Lamuel Shattock - began sanitation awareness in the
America's
- 1842 - Edwin Chadwick - published legislations regarding
sanitation in England
- 1854 - John Snow - studied cholera epidemic in London
- 1880 - Louis Pasteur - proposed germ theory of disease
- 1910 - Robert Koch - founder of bacteriology
Among these, the development of vaccines against small pox by
Edward Jenner is the most significant one as it greatly reduced the
mortality and morbidity caused by infectious agents like bacteria
and viruses.