Confronting an Emergency: The Vaccination Campaign Against Meningitis in Brazil (1974–1975)

Author(s):  
Baptiste Baylac-Paouly

Summary On the basis of a wide range of historical sources, including published scientific literature and both public and private archives (Institut Mérieux, WHO and IMTSSA), this article examines the history of the Brazilian vaccination campaign against cerebrospinal meningitis between 1974 and 1975. It explores not only certain aspects of vaccine production but also the wider social aspects of the ongoing project. Thus, it shows how the different actors were mobilised and their work coordinated in order to produce and vaccinate a whole country or more specifically, 90 million Brazilians in less than a year. This episode not only adds to the scholarship on the politics of vaccination but also attests to the complex reality of the production and use of a vaccine in the context of a public health emergency.

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-453
Author(s):  
Baptiste Baylac-Paouly

Based on a wide range of historical sources, including published scientific literature and archives (Institut Mérieux, WHO and IMTSSA), this article examines the history of the development of the meningococcal A vaccine between 1969 and 1973. It explores the social factors of vaccine development including various collaborations, informal discussions, the circulation of products and materials, formal meetings, trials and setbacks to highlight the complex reality of the development, production and use of the vaccine. Inscribed in a ‘Golden Age’ of vaccine development and production, this episode not only adds to the scholarship on the history of vaccines, which has tended to focus on a narrative of progress, but also considers the sharing of knowledge through collaborations, and the risks involved in the development of a vaccine. Finally, this perspective reveals the uncertainties and difficulties underlying the production of an effective vaccine.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Saluzzo ◽  
Paola Mantegani ◽  
Valeria Poletti De Chaurand ◽  
Virginia Quaresima ◽  
Federica Cugnata ◽  
...  

Background: During the last year, mass screening campaigns have been carried out to identify immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 and establish a possible seroprevalence. The obtained results gained new importance with the beginning of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination campaign, as the lack of doses has persuaded several countries to introduce different policies for individuals who had a history of COVID 19. LFAs may represent an affordable tool to support population screening in LMICs, where diagnostic tests are lacking, and epidemiology is still widely unknown. However, LFAs have demonstrated a wide range of performance and the question of which one could be more valuable in these settings still remains. Methods: We evaluated the performance of 11 LFAs in detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection, analysing samples collected from 350 subjects. In addition, samples from 57 health care workers collected at 21-24 days after the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were also evaluated. Findings: LFAs demonstrated a wide range of specificity (92.31% to 100%) and sensitivity (50 to 100%). The analysis of serum samples post vaccination was used to describe the most suitable tests to detect IgG response against S protein RBD. History of TB therapy was identified as a potential factor affecting the specificity of LFAs. Conclusions: This analysis identified which LFAs represent a valuable tool not only for the detection of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, but also to detect IgG elicited in response to vaccination. These results demonstrated that different LFAs may have different applications and the possible risks of their use in high TB burden settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 8-33
Author(s):  
Johanna Widenberg

This article presents the findings of a study showing that rinderpest and anthrax were rife among cattle in eighteenth century Sweden and Finland. These diseases, which caused a widespread loss of animals, were the scourge of owners, medical practitioners and the authorities alike. The study also shows that the epizootic legislation and disease control that evolved at government level was influenced by the particular characteristics of rinderpest and anthrax. Previous research has identified the endemic nature of rinderpest and its far-reaching consequences for society. Yet major outbreaks of anthrax, and the degree to which the disease influenced the development of State epizootic control, were previously unknown. The study uses the perspectives of cultural history and the history of veterinary medicine, a wide range of historical sources, and a method of text analysis for making retrospective diagnoses. In this article the findings are compared with the results of studies of eighteenth century cattle disease and epizootic control in other European countries. Similarities and differences in theoretical perspectives and research methods are identified. Here the use of retrospective diagnosis in the history of veterinary medicine is discussed in particular.


This handbook takes on the task of examining the history of music listening over the past two hundred years. It uses the “art of listening” as a leitmotif encompassing an entanglement of interdependent practices and discourses about a learnable mode of perception. The art of listening first emerged around 1800 and was adopted and adapted across the public realm to suit a wide range of collective listening situations from popular to serious art forms up to the present day. Because this is a relatively new subject in historical research, the volume combines case studies from several disciplines in order to investigate whether, how, and why practices of music listening changed. Focusing on a diverse set of locations and actors and using a range of historical sources, it attempts to historicize and reconstruct the evolution of listening styles to show the wealth of variants in listening. In doing so, it challenges the inherited image of the silent listener as the dominant force in musical cultures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Shahzaib Khattak ◽  
Meryam Jan ◽  
Sara Warsi ◽  
Sohail Khattak

Copy number variations (CNVs) involving the JAG1 gene are rare and infrequently reported in the scientific literature. Recently, a generally healthy young patient presenting with a history of behavioural concerns was referred to us. Herein, we discuss the patient, a 7-year-old female possessing a 0.797 Mb microduplication within the short arm of chromosome 20 at band 12.2. The patient generates considerable curiosity due to the rarity of her case, which includes a de novo partial duplication involving the JAG1 gene. The patient exhibits a wide range of symptoms including facial dysmorphism (dolichocephaly, round face, tented philtrum, anteverted nares, and micrognathia), clinodactyly, and an inborn congenital heart defect. She presented with behavioural concerns including ADHD-I, SPD, motor clumsiness, and poor self-regulation. Deletions in JAG1 are often linked to Alagille Syndrome; however, complete duplications have not been specifically identified as disease-causing. JAG1 mutations are reported alongside various clinical features including facial dysmorphology, heart defects, vertebral abnormalities, and ocular dysmorphic features (strabismus, epicanthal folds, and slanted palpebral fissures). This particular microduplication is rare, and thus, limited data exist regarding its significance. To our knowledge, most reported duplications are larger than 0.797 Mb. This may define a critical region causing phenotypical changes in some patient cases.


These chapters survey the range of historical sources from the peoples who collided with the Byzantine Empire during this period of dramatic upheaval. The Empire that had been expanded and consolidated by Basil II (d. 1025) was to disintegrate in the face of incursions from the north and Muslim east. In addition, pilgrims and crusaders from the west passed through the Empire and settled – culminating in the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. In order to understand the history of the region during this period, one must be aware of the rich source material created by these shifting populations, in a wide range of languages, and with differing traditions of historical writing. The 14 chapters give an overview of the material, highlighting any problems the historian may have in dealing with it, and provide detailed bibliographical surveys. Latin, Arabic, Jewish, Slavonic, Georgian, Armenian, and Syriac sources are all discussed.


Author(s):  
Sergey E. Kiyasov ◽  

The review contains comments that were the result of acquaintance with a new book by Russian experts on the history of the British Enlightenment. The authors focused on the main representatives of several generations of this direction of philosophical thought. Their bright essays are based on attracting a wide range of sources and scientific literature. Readers will have the opportunity to expand their understanding of the work of British educational intellectuals.


Author(s):  
Andrey A. Kuznetsov ◽  

The book about the settlements of the south of the Pskov region in the Time of Troubles was written by a well-known specialist in the history of Russia of the XVII century Ya. N. Rabinovich. It will arouse great interest among researchers and a wide range of readers. The book recreates a complete system picture of the events of the Time of Troubles in the south of the Pskov land. This advantage of the book is determined by the involvement of new material from historical sources, new factography and its conceptual understanding. The study of Ya. N. Rabinovich allows us to supplement the history of the Pskov region. The review contains comments on the structuring of the material and wishes in connection with the need to write a generalizing work on the history of Pskov and the Pskov land in the Time of Troubles, as well as biographical texts.


2021 ◽  
pp. 407-426
Author(s):  
Ihor Chava

Summary. The purpose of the study is to research the interpretations of the Ukrainian-Moscow treaty of 1654 in the works of Polish historians of the first half of the twentieth century; study the approaches of scientists to identify the reasons for the mutual understanding of the Ukrainian Cossacks with the tsarist authorities; analyze the peculiarities of the study by Polish scholars of the history of the relations of the Hetman’s Chancellery of B. Khmelnytsky with Moscow; consider the specifics of historians’ vision of the circumstances of concluding the agreement in Pereyaslav and Moscow as well as the course of negotiations between the parties and their implementation; study the researchers’ assessments of the significance of the Ukrainian-Moscow agreement in the history of Ukraine, Tsardom of Muscovy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The research methodology is based on the general scientific principles of objectivity, historicism, scientific pluralism and reliance on historical sources. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, comparison) and special-historical (historical-genetic, historical-typological, problem-chronological, historical-systemic) methods have been used in the work. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the analysis of a wide range of historiographical sources that reflect the interpretations of Polish scholars of the first half of the twentieth century history of the conclusion of the Ukrainian-Moscow treaty of 1654. The peculiarities of the historians’ approaches to the causes of the union between the Cossacks and Moscow and the circumstances of its conclusion are particularly studied. The ideological influences of historical schools and political concepts on the assessments of scholars of the Pereyaslav agreement and bereznevi statti (March articles) have been analyzed. Conclusions. Polish historians of the first half of the twentieth century considered 1654 a milestone in the fate of Ukraine and one of the most important in the history of Poland. It was from the Cossack-Moscow treaty that they deduced the beginning of the rejection of the eastern lands of the Commonwealth in favor of Russia. Scholars saw the causes of these fateful events in the significant depletion of the Ukrainian uprising. As another reason, they also pointed to the complication of the international situation of the Cossacks due to frustration with the Turkish protection and the dual role of assistance to the Crimean Khanate. Polish scholars have drawn attention to the long history of Cossack-Moscow relations since the uprisings of the first half of the seventeenth century. However, they also pointed to Moscow’s unpreparedness for the war against the Commonwealth and its indecision. In their interpretations of Cossack-Moscow relations during the national liberation war Polish historians emphasized the parties’ differing views on the terms of the union. Thus, the scholars indicated that B. Khmelnytsky understood the agreement as a military understanding directed against Poland, where there was no talk of any restriction of Ukraine’s broad autonomy. Instead, the tsarist government understood the treaty as a simple incorporation of Ukrainian lands. This, in turn, as scientists have pointed out, it has caused many sharp misunderstandings. Among the most irritating researchers named the issue of financing the Cossack register and the disagreement of the Ukrainian clergy with the attempts of the Moscow Patriarchate to absorb its church structure. Thus, in the vision of Polish historians of the first half of the twentieth century, the Ukrainian-Moscow union was perceived as hopeless and even utterly dangerous for the very existence of the Ukrainian people.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolay Shaveko

The monograph is devoted to the ideas of the ancient Russian man about the religious, moral and socio-legal values associated with the word "truth". The author analyzes the context of the use of the word "truth" in a variety of historical sources before the XVII century, and on this basis, a conclusion is made not just about the meanings of this word, but about the most significant values and ideals that the Old Russian man expressed through the corresponding term. It is addressed to a wide range of readers interested in the history of religious, moral and socio-legal ideas. It can be useful for students, postgraduates and teachers of historical, political, philosophical and law faculties of universities.


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