scholarly journals Human major infections: tuberculosis, treponematoses, leprosy – a paleopathological perspective of their evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Henneberg ◽  
Kara Holloway-Kew ◽  
Teghan Lucas

AbstractObjectiveThe key to evolution is reproduction. Pathogens can either kill the human host or can invade the host without causing death, thus ensuring their own survival, reproduction and spread. Tuberculosis, treponematoses and leprosy are widespread chronic infectious diseases whereby the host is not immediately killed. These diseases are examples of the co-evolution of host and pathogen. They can be well studied as the paleopathological record is extensive, spanning over 200 human generations.MethodsThe paleopathology of each disease has been well documented in the form of published synthetic analyses recording each known case and case frequencies in the samples they were derived from. Here the data from these synthetic analyses were re-analysed to show changes in the prevalence of each disease over time. A total of 69,379 skeletons are included in this study.ResultsThere was ultimately a decline in the prevalence of each disease over time, this decline was statistically significant (Chi-squared, p<0.001). A trend may start with the increase in the disease’s prevalence before the prevalence declines, in tuberculosis the decline is monotonic.ConclusionsIncrease in skeletal changes resulting from the respective diseases appears in the initial period of host-disease contact, followed by a decline resulting from co-adaptation that is mutually beneficial for the disease (spread and maintenance of pathogen) and host (less pathological reactions to the infection). Eventually either the host may become immune or tolerant, or the pathogen tends to be commensalic rather than parasitic.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0243687
Author(s):  
Maciej Henneberg ◽  
Kara Holloway-Kew ◽  
Teghan Lucas

The key to evolution is reproduction. Pathogens can either kill the human host or can invade the host without causing death, thus ensuring their own survival, reproduction and spread. Tuberculosis, treponematoses and leprosy are widespread chronic infectious diseases whereby the host is not immediately killed. These diseases are examples of the co-evolution of host and pathogen. They can be well studied as the paleopathological record is extensive, spanning over 200 human generations. The paleopathology of each disease has been well documented in the form of published synthetic analyses recording each known case and case frequencies in the samples they were derived from. Here the data from these synthetic analyses were re-analysed to show changes in the prevalence of each disease over time. A total of 69,379 skeletons are included in this study. There was ultimately a decline in the prevalence of each disease over time, this decline was statistically significant (Chi-squared, p<0.001). A trend may start with the increase in the disease’s prevalence before the prevalence declines, in tuberculosis the decline is monotonic. Increase in skeletal changes resulting from the respective diseases appears in the initial period of host-disease contact, followed by a decline resulting from co-adaptation that is mutually beneficial for the disease (spread and maintenance of pathogen) and host (less pathological reactions to the infection). Eventually either the host may become immune or tolerant, or the pathogen tends to be commensalic rather than parasitic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101-121
Author(s):  
Dorothy H. Crawford

This chapter focuses on past emerging viruses. For our ancestors, it was their change in lifestyle from hunter-gatherer to farmer some 10,000 years ago that triggered an onslaught of new, emerging infectious diseases. The switch from the nomadic life to living in fixed communities, along with the change from hunting animals to their domestication, encouraged spillover of new viruses as well as other types of microbes. As such, the early farmers’ emerging viruses jumped from the animals they domesticated, while the cramped conditions of life in villages, and later towns, gave these viruses the opportunity to thrive in their new human host. This was the beginning of many of our acute childhood infections, so-called crowd diseases. The chapter looks at how these ancient afflictions have evolved over the intervening 10,000 years with a view to understanding how diseases like COVID-19 might evolve over time. It considers smallpox and measles, which are both highly infectious, lethal, airborne viruses, as well as polio, which is spread by faecal–oral contamination.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2694
Author(s):  
Heehyeon Jeong ◽  
Jungyeol Hong ◽  
Dongjoo Park

The outbreak of African swine fever virus has raised global concerns regarding epidemic livestock diseases. Therefore, various studies have attempted to prevent and monitor epidemic livestock diseases. Most of them have emphasized that integrated studies between the public health and transportation engineering are essential to prevent the livestock disease spread. However, it has been difficult to obtain big data related to the mobility of livestock-related vehicles. Thus, it is challenging to conduct research that comprehensively considers cargo vehicles’ movement carrying livestock and the spread of livestock infectious diseases. This study developed the framework for integrating the digital tachograph data (DTG) and trucks’ visit history of livestock facility data. The DTG data include commercial trucks’ coordinate information, but it excludes actual livestock-related vehicle trajectories such as freight types and facility visit history. Therefore, the integrated database we developed can be used as a significant resource for preventing the spread of livestock epidemics by pre-monitoring livestock transport vehicles’ movements. In future studies, epidemiological research on infectious diseases and livestock species will be able to conduct through the derived integrating database. Furthermore, the indicators of the spread of infectious diseases could be suggested based on both microscopic and macroscopic roadway networks to manage livestock epidemics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (11) ◽  
pp. 2023-2028
Author(s):  
Rísia L. Negreiros ◽  
José H.H. Grisi-Filho ◽  
Ricardo A. Dias ◽  
Fernando Ferreira ◽  
Valéria S.F. Homem ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT: The analysis of animal movement patterns may help identify farm premises with a potentially high risk of infectious disease introduction. Farm herd sizes and bovine movement data from 2007 in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, were analyzed. There are three different biomes in Mato Grosso: the Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal. The analysis of the animal trade between and within biomes would enable characterization of the connections between the biomes and the intensity of the internal trade within each biome. We conducted the following analyses: 1) the concentration of cattle on farm premises in the state and in each biome, 2) the number and relative frequency of cattle moved between biomes, and 3) the most frequent purposes for cattle movements. Twenty percent (20%) of the farm premises had 81.15% of the herd population. Those premises may be important not only for the spread of infectious diseases, but also for the implementation of surveillance and control strategies. Most of the cattle movement was intrastate (97.1%), and internal movements within each biome were predominant (88.6%). A high percentage of movement from the Pantanal was to the Cerrado (48.6%), the biome that received the most cattle for slaughter, fattening and reproduction (62.4%, 56.8%, and 49.1% of all movements for slaughter, fattening, and reproduction, respectively). The primary purposes for cattle trade were fattening (43.5%), slaughter (31.5%), and reproduction (22.7%). Presumably, movements for slaughter has a low risk of disease spread. In contrast, movements for fattening and reproduction purposes (66.2% of all movements) may contribute to an increased risk of the spread of infectious diseases.


2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Paweł Michalak ◽  
Jack Cordes ◽  
Agnieszka Kulawik ◽  
Sławomir Sitek ◽  
Sławomir Pytel ◽  
...  

Spatiotemporal modelling of infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) involves using a variety of epidemiological metrics such as regional proportion of cases and/or regional positivity rates. Although observing changes of these indices over time is critical to estimate the regional disease burden, the dynamical properties of these measures, as well as crossrelationships, are usually not systematically given or explained. Here we provide a spatiotemporal framework composed of six commonly used and newly constructed epidemiological metrics and conduct a case study evaluation. We introduce a refined risk estimate that is biased neither by variation in population size nor by the spatial heterogeneity of testing. In particular, the proposed methodology would be useful for unbiased identification of time periods with elevated COVID-19 risk without sensitivity to spatial heterogeneity of neither population nor testing coverage.We offer a case study in Poland that shows improvement over the bias of currently used methods. Our results also provide insights regarding regional prioritisation of testing and the consequences of potential synchronisation of epidemics between regions. The approach should apply to other infectious diseases and other geographical areas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuya Yamada ◽  
Shoi Shi

Comprehensive and evidence-based countermeasures against emerging infectious diseases have become increasingly important in recent years. COVID-19 and many other infectious diseases are spread by human movement and contact, but complex transportation networks in 21 century make it difficult to predict disease spread in rapidly changing situations. It is especially challenging to estimate the network of infection transmission in the countries that the traffic and human movement data infrastructure is not yet developed. In this study, we devised a method to estimate the network of transmission of COVID-19 from the time series data of its infection and applied it to determine its spread across areas in Japan. We incorporated the effects of soft lockdowns, such as the declaration of a state of emergency, and changes in the infection network due to government-sponsored travel promotion, and predicted the spread of infection using the Tokyo Olympics as a model. The models used in this study are available online, and our data-driven infection network models are scalable, whether it be at the level of a city, town, country, or continent, and applicable anywhere in the world, as long as the time-series data of infections per region is available. These estimations of effective distance and the depiction of infectious disease networks based on actual infection data are expected to be useful in devising data-driven countermeasures against emerging infectious diseases worldwide.


2021 ◽  
pp. 45-51
Author(s):  
Vasily Aleksandrovich Tsurkan ◽  

The principles of organizing and implementing anti-epidemic, including disinfectological measures for COVID-19 infection were studied, and the results of the state of readiness of interested services in the localization and elimination of focuses of coronavirus infection were presented. It was noted that the untimely solution of existing problems of a socio-economic nature contributed to the development of the pandemic process of COVID-19 infection. In the initial period of the development of the pandemic in most countries of the world, including Moldova, the system for monitoring and actively detecting cases of the population of COVID-19 did not work. Lack of disinfection services and insufficiently trained disinfectologists lead to untimely and poor-quality disinfection measures. The role of the disinfectological service in ensuring the epidemiological well-being of the population is argued. The necessity of creating a new, comprehensive system for protecting the country’s population from especially dangerous infectious diseases has been substantiated. Keywords: disinfection measures, biocides, treatment and prevention organizations, pandemic process, technologies, methods, forces and means, provision, infectious diseases, COVID-19 infection


Author(s):  
Dennis C. Daley ◽  
Antoine Douaihy

An emotion that is prolonged or persists over time is referred to as a mood. Emotions or moods that are too intense, extreme, or chronic and that cause problems in life often need to be addressed as part of ongoing substance use recovery. An overall goal of recovery is to reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, although any emotion can have a positive or negative effect depending on the circumstance. Negative emotional states can also be exacerbated by physical withdrawal, in addition to life problems, stresses, and interpersonal difficulties. These emotions are also associated with the initial period of becoming drug-free. The objectives of this chapter are to identify the role of negative and positive emotions in recovery and relapse, to help clients identify high-risk emotional issues (specific emotions or deficits in coping skills) to address in recovery, and to help clients learn appropriate strategies to manage emotions.


Author(s):  
E. Maguire ◽  
K. Glynn ◽  
C. McGrath ◽  
P. Byrne

Abstract Objectives: A review of the literature demonstrates that relatively little is known about acute psychiatric presentations in children (0–12 years), compared with adolescents or young adults (12 years+). This study aims to review psychiatric presentations of children to a CAMHS Liaison Service at Children’s Hospital Ireland (CHI) at Tallaght University Hospital over a 10-year period. Methods: A retrospective study was undertaken of case notes of all children aged 12 years and under who were referred to the CAMHS Liaison Service between January 2009 and December 2018 (n = 318). Data were anonymised and inputted into SPSSv25 for analysis. The relationships between presentations and methods of self-harm over time were measured using Pearson’s correlation. Associations between categorical variables were analysed using chi-squared tests. Results: There was a significant increase in presentations of under-12s over the 10-year period (r(8)=0.66, p = 0.02). There was also a significant increase in children presenting with a disturbance of conduct and/or emotions over time (r(8) = 0.79, p < 0.001). There was a significant association between female gender and ingestion (X2 = 12.73, df = 1, p < 0.05) and between male gender and ligature as a method of self-harm (X2 = 5.54, df = 1, p < 0.05). Over half (53%) of children presented with suicidal thoughts and 22% presented with suicidal behaviours. The reported use of ligature as a method of self-harm emerged only from 2012 among cases studied. Conclusions: Children aged 12 years and under are presenting in increasing numbers with acute mental health difficulties, including suicidal thoughts and behaviours. There is a worrying trend in methods of self-harm, particularly in high lethality behaviours such as attempted strangulation.


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