Optional · 1 of 3

Where epidemiologists specialize

• Infectious disease

  Outbreaks, vaccines and surveillance. The part of the job people picture.

• Chronic disease

  Cancer, diabetes and heart disease over decades. Slower, bigger, and where most of the deaths are.

• Drug safety

  Watching what happens once a medicine is on the market. Best paid branch of the field.

• Environmental and occupational

  What a workplace or a neighborhood is doing to the people in it.

• Injury and violence

  Crashes, overdoses and firearms treated as a public health problem rather than a crime story.