Media statement

New epidemiology textbook launched

Oxford University Press South Africa (OUPSA) recently launched the second edition of Epidemiology: a Manual for South Africa to provide practical guidance on population-based health.

Prof Debbie Bradshaw, Director of the Burden of Disease Research Unit at the Medical Research Council, is confident that the manual offers a cut above the rest: “I haven’t seen another textbook that offers this approach, because it not only tells you what to do, which is what most textbooks do, it’s also got an element of how to do it.” When Prof Abdool Karim was appointed as Director of the Centre for Epidemiology Research in South Africa, he initiated talks between the MRC and OUPSA to publish the in-house manual which had already served many training workshops and local courses in epidemiology.

In 1997 Epidemiology: a Manual for South Africa was launched by OUPSA as a textbook. Every effort was made to use South African-based examples so that the students could easily relate to them. In 2005 Prof Gina Joubert, who had left the employ of the MRC at the time, teamed up with Prof Rodney Ehrlich from the University of Cape Town to work on the second edition of the textbook. The new title, Epidemiology: a Research Manual for South Africa, amplifies the book’s focus on how to do research. A wide range of South Africans have collaborated to include new developments in epidemiology and data analysis. The strong links between epidemiology and biostatistics are maintained as well as the clear communication style of the preceding edition.

The success of the first edition, coupled with new developments in the field of epidemiology research, prompted OUPSA to commission the new edition. “Completely new additions to the book include a new section on human rights and advocacy as part of the chapter on general philosophical issues in epidemiology, and two completely new chapters: those of HIV and infectious disease epidemiology. Overall, this comprehensively updated edition of Epidemiology maintains the focus on epidemiology as a discipline and incorporates the changes in policy, as well as new findings and research methodologies,” says Hanli van Schalkwyk, Higher Education Sales and Marketing Director of OUPSA.

Dr Carl Lombard, Director of the MRC Biostatistics Unit, reviewed many of the chapters and was particularly impressed with the inclusion of new methods such as cluster randomised trials. He also observed that “the book highlights the extensive range of applications of epidemiology and biostatistics, from infectious diseases to occupational health”. Clearly this new edition is going to serve the new generation of health researchers well and will make an invaluable contribution to building capacity to conduct quality research in South Africa, Dr Lombard concluded.