Topic 1.

The place and importance of hygiene in the

medical sciences and medical practice. Methods of
hygienic research.

1. Hygiene as a scientific discipline. Place of hygiene in the

system of medical knowledge and health care.
Hygiene is a science that studies the laws of influence the
environment on the organism, develop preventive sanitary
measures for individuals and society at all
The Hygiene is a branch of the medical knowledge, the
science dealing with protecting and consolidating social
(collective) and personal (individual) health by means of
prophylactic measures. The objective of the hygiene may be
defined as the preservation and strengthening of people
health and (according to Е.А. Parks) “… making human body
development the most perfect, life – the most powerful,
fading away – the slowest and death – the most remote”.
2. Interrelation of therapeutic and preventive medicine. The
value of environmental knowledge for students of medical
profile. The object and purpose of ecology.
bases of General Ecology
Ecology is a biological science concerned with
interrelationships among living organisms, encompassing the
relations of organisms to each other, to the environment, and to
energy balance within a given ecosystem. Ecology (bionomics)
is subdivided into the following sections:
Autoecology — a section of bionomics which studies all
ecological aspects of separate species. Autoecology studies the
effect of the environmental factors on each living organism.
Thus, an investigated organism is considered outside the link
with other living entities of the given ecological system.
Synecology studies communities of various living organisms,
for example, the community of microorganisms, plants, animals
and their interaction with each other, as well as with inorganic
environment.
In ecology the hygienic concept "environment" approximates to
the concept of "biosphere", but ―biosphere‖ is a wider one.
3. Correlation of human health and the natural factors of
environment, socio-economic conditions of life.
The environment plays a crucial role in people’s physical,
mental and social well-being. Despite significant
improvements, major differences in environmental quality
and human health remain between and within countries.
The complex relationships between environmental factors
and human health, taking into account multiple pathways
and interactions, should be seen in a broader spatial, socio-
economic and cultural context.
The degradation of the environment, through air pollution,
noise, chemicals, poor quality water and loss of natural
areas, combined with lifestyle changes, may be
contributing to substantial increases in rates of obesity,
diabetes, diseases of the cardiovascular and nervous
systems and cancer — all of which are major public health
problems for population ( 3 ). Reproductive and mental
health problems are also on the rise. Asthma, allergies (4),
and some types of cancer related to environmental
pressures are of particular concern for children.

4. Influence of scientific and technical progress on the

working and living conditions of the Population
As new technologies are evolving, agricultural production is
increasing, and as a result, mortality is decreasing and fertility is
increasing. New technologies can increase productivity and
hence the population grows. Apart from this, technological
changes also raise income at a global level
By making life easier, science has given man the chance to
pursue societal concerns such as ethics, aesthetics, education,
and justice; to create cultures; and to improve human
conditions. But it has also placed us in the unique position of
being able to destroy ourselves.

5. The main stages of development of hygiene, the

contribution of the outstanding persons of hygiene science
and health affairs to its development.

6. The main directions of modern hygiene, its purpose and

tasks, prospects for the development of various branches of
hygienic science.

7. Methods of hygiene and the methodology of sanitation

research. Basic hygiene laws formulated by Academician
E.I.Goncharukom.
Methods of research in Hygiene

- Group I - methods of studying of environment:

Methods of sanitary inspection and description; instrumental
and laboratory and mathematical methods.
 - Group II - Methods of studying environmental influences
on the body and health:
methods of experimental studies; methods of natural
observations and research.
- Group III - Method of Health Education.
Alongside with methods used in other medical sciences —
physical, biochemical,
physiological, morphological, hygiene has a number of specific
methods of research:
Epidemiological method — studying health of population
according to basic quantity
indicators as an integrated criterion of quality of the
environment. The basic quantity
indicators of population health are:
Demographic — death rate, birth rate, natality, average life
expectancy, etc.;
Parameters of morbidity (common sickness rate,
morbidity, etc.);
Physical development — (weight, height) — is especially
important in children and
teenagers;
Disablement (invalidity) of population (amount of invalids
in population, reasons
8
(diseases) of invalidity, etc).
Method of sanitary inspection. The very first method in
hygiene is a sanitary inspection
of an object (for example, a canteen with drawing up the act of
sanitary inspection).
Method of sanitary examination — examination of civil-
engineering designs of objects
from the point of view of hygienic requirements, examination of
foodstuffs (comparison of
product parameters to requirements of the state standards and
making the decision on
possibility of food product realization).
Method of hygienic experiment — studying the effect of a
harmful factor on the
organism of animals in laboratory experiment with modelling
conditions of real influence
on a person with revealing the affected organs and systems, the
threshold and
noneffective levels of effect — is the basis of hygienic regulation of harmful factors.

Laws of hygiene
+ The first law of hygiene (the law of 3 moving forces): violation of
human’s health caused by physical, chemical biological and other
factors may appear only at presence of 3 parts - source, way of
influence, vulnerability of a body
+ The second law of hygiene (the law of unavoidable negative
influence of human’s activity on environment): Undependable from
one’s will and self-understanding due to physiological, social and
producing activity people negatively influence environment.
+The third law of hygiene : law of unavoidable negative influence on
environment and human’s health of ecological and technical disasters
and natural and technological catastrophes of bio-geo-chemical
provinces.
+ The fourth law of hygiene (law of positive effect of human’s society
on environment): сonstructive and rational activity of person has a
positive influence on environment, makes it healthier, prevents
contamination and improves population’s health.
+ The fifth law of hygiene – law of unavoidable negative influence of
contaminated environment on human’s health.
+ The sixth law of hygiene (law of positive effect of factors of
environment on human’s health) - In other words solar radiation,
clear air and water, benign food positively affects health, allows to
preserve and strengthen it.

8. The main sections of hygiene and their characteristics.

the Basic Sections of Hygiene
The contents of hygiene as a science is determined by the list
of its basic sections:
General hygiene (propaedeutics of hygiene)
Hygiene of nutrition
Municipal hygiene
Hygiene of environment
Occupational hygiene
Hygiene of children and teenagers
Hygiene of medical-prophylactic establishments
Hygiene of extreme conditions
Military hygiene
Hygiene of hot climate
Radiative hygiene
Other sections — transport, sports hygiene, etc.
9. Sanitation as a field of practical activity of protecting the
health of the country.
Sanitation means the practical use of standards, sanitary rules
and recommendations developed by the hygienic science and
helping to optimize the conditions of education, upbringing,
everyday life, leisure and nourishment, aimed at
strengthening and preserving people’s health.
The sanitation is achieved by sanitary and anti-epidemic
measures. These measures are implemented by population,
state organs, enterprises, institutions and organizations,
agricultural enterprises, trade unions and other public
organizations.
The adequate fulfillment of sanitary and anti-epidemic
measures is controlled by sanitary- and-epidemiological
services. There are school, housing and municipal, industrial
and food sanitation.
School sanitation is a system of control of sanitary norms,
rules and hygienic demands concerning physical development
and state of health of children and adolescents, their daily
regimen, organization of study, work, leisure, physical
culture, as well as designing establishments for small
children, creating and operating them, supplying with
furniture and equipment for babies, preschool, school
children and adolescents.
Housing and municipal sanitation provides the control of
measures for sanitary protection of atmospheric air, water
and soil from pollution, carrying out rational, scientifically
grounded planning, planting tress and shrubs, building or
providing sanitary amenities and improving sanitary
conditions for the settlements, dwelling houses, educational,
cultural, health protection establishments, sports structures
etc..
Industrial sanitation is a complex of measures of control of
the adherence to the standards of industrial environment
which provide for developing sanitary, technical and
engineering measures to fight harmful working conditions.
Food sanitation is a complex of measures of controlling the
adherence to hygienic requirements in designing, building
and operating food industry enterprises, materials and
equipment, designing new recipes and technologies of food
production, preserving, transporting, storing food and
carrying out measures of preventing alimentary tractdiseases.