[Epidemiology in Italy: contributions from the specialists in hygiene and preventive medicine, current state and future prospects]

This review considers the State-of-art of Epidemiology in Italy with particular emphasis to: the promoting role of the Specialists in hygiene and preventive medicine; the new perspectives after its inclusions among the official disciplines of the Italian National Health Service (NHS) in a political contest of devolution; the past and present role of University training; the actual epidemiological training needs for the NHS; the different opinions about this discipline among the operators. This article reflects the prevalent perspective of the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health, an association with more than 4000 members.