The Bioarchaeology of Health Crisis: Infectious Disease in the Past

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 295-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clark Spencer Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Dental Caries ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Major Health ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Pathogenic Microbes

Beginning some 10,000 years ago, humans began a dramatic alteration in living conditions relating especially to the shift in lifeway from foraging to farming. In addition to the initiation of and increasing focus on the production and consumption of domesticated plant carbohydrates, this revolutionary transformation in diet occasioned a decline in mobility and an increased size and agglomeration of populations in semipermanent or permanent settlements. These changes in life conditions presented an opportunity for increased transmission of pathogenic microbes from host to host, such as those that cause major health threats affecting most of the 7.5 billion members of our species today. This article discusses the bioarchaeology of infectious disease, focusing on tuberculosis, treponematosis, dental caries, and periodontitis, all of which continue to contribute to high levels of morbidity and mortality among the world's populations today.

scholarly journals Effects of conflict, displacement, and migration on the health of refugee and conflict-stricken populations in the Middle East

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 359
Author(s):  
Selma Nouri
Keyword(s):  
Living Conditions ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
And Migration

<p dir="ltr">The global refugee crisis has reached an all-time high, with over 68 million innocent people forced to flee their homes due to violence, famine, governmental instability, or genocide. As a result of the struggles and traumas encountered by war and migration, millions of refugees suffer from acute and life-threatening physical and mental health illnesses. However, these diseases and internal-battles are often overlooked, leaving most conflict-stricken countries and refugee camps ill-equipped and unable to cope. Rather than settling into more humane and healthy living conditions, upon migration, most refugees are faced with realities that deny them <br /> a dignified and fulfilling life. More often than not, refugee camps and host countries accommodate a deplorable lifestyle that provides minimal and inadequate health-care, extreme and life-threatening poverty, and inhumane and unsanitary living conditions-exasperating the rate and risk of morbidity and mortality amongst refugee populations. This research paper aims to analyze the harsh conditions that refugees and conflict-stricken populations are currently forced to endure, as well as the effects of those conditions on the spread of communicable and non-communicable diseases, <br /> the development and growth of neonatal disorders, and the overall rise in mental illness. The paper also aims to suggest specific measures that can be taken in order to prevent the increase in morbidity and mortality rates amongst vulnerable refugee populations and recommend steps that international bodies and non-governmental organizations can take in order to solve the refugee health crisis.</p>

scholarly journals The Role of Lifestyle, Eating Habits and Social Environment in the Prevention and Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1460
Author(s):  
Kalliopi Karatzi ◽  
Yannis Manios
Keyword(s):  
Type 2 Diabetes ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Major Health ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prevention And Treatment

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and hypertension are major health problems, with an undisputed growth burden in the past decades [...]

scholarly journals How does globalization affect COVID-19 responses?

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve J. Bickley ◽  
Ho Fai Chan ◽  
Ahmed Skali ◽  
David Stadelmann ◽  
Benno Torgler
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Government Effectiveness ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
High Government

Abstract Background The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vast differences in approaches to the control and containment of coronavirus across the world and has demonstrated the varied success of such approaches in minimizing the transmission of coronavirus. While previous studies have demonstrated high predictive power of incorporating air travel data and governmental policy responses in global disease transmission modelling, factors influencing the decision to implement travel and border restriction policies have attracted relatively less attention. This paper examines the role of globalization on the pace of adoption of international travel-related non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the coronavirus pandemic. This study aims to offer advice on how to improve the global planning, preparation, and coordination of actions and policy responses during future infectious disease outbreaks with empirical evidence. Methods and data We analyzed data on international travel restrictions in response to COVID-19 of 185 countries from January to October 2020. We applied time-to-event analysis to examine the relationship between globalization and the timing of travel restrictions implementation. Results The results of our survival analysis suggest that, in general, more globalized countries, accounting for the country-specific timing of the virus outbreak and other factors, are more likely to adopt international travel restrictions policies. However, countries with high government effectiveness and globalization were more cautious in implementing travel restrictions, particularly if through formal political and trade policy integration. This finding is supported by a placebo analysis of domestic NPIs, where such a relationship is absent. Additionally, we find that globalized countries with high state capacity are more likely to have higher numbers of confirmed cases by the time a first restriction policy measure was taken. Conclusions The findings highlight the dynamic relationship between globalization and protectionism when governments respond to significant global events such as a public health crisis. We suggest that the observed caution of policy implementation by countries with high government efficiency and globalization is a by-product of commitment to existing trade agreements, a greater desire to ‘learn from others’ and also perhaps of ‘confidence’ in a government’s ability to deal with a pandemic through its health system and state capacity. Our results suggest further research is warranted to explore whether global infectious disease forecasting could be improved by including the globalization index and in particular, the de jure economic and political, and de facto social dimensions of globalization, while accounting for the mediating role of government effectiveness. By acting as proxies for a countries’ likelihood and speed of implementation for international travel restriction policies, such measures may predict the likely time delays in disease emergence and transmission across national borders.

scholarly journals The two-sided spectacle at the border: Frontex, NGOs and the theatres of sovereignty

2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062110078
Author(s):  
Katja Franko
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
The Past ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
A Site ◽  
Previous Scholarship

The Southern Mediterranean border has in the past decade become one of the most deeply contested political spaces in Europe and has been described as a site of the border spectacle. Drawing on textual and visual analysis of Twitter messages by two of the most prominent actors in the field, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, and the humanitarian and medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, the article examines the split nature of the Mediterranean border which is, among others, visible in radically different narratives about migrants’ journeys, border deaths and living conditions. The findings challenge previous scholarship about convergence of humanitarianism and policing. The two actors are waging a fierce media battle for moral authority, where they use widely diverging strategies of claiming authority, each of which carries a particular set of ethical dilemmas.

The Past, Present, and Future of Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention in Pediatrics: Catheter-Associated Bloodstream Infections

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (S1) ◽  
pp. S27-S31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina A. Bryant ◽  
Danielle M. Zerr ◽  
W. Charles Huskins ◽  
Aaron M. Milstone
Keyword(s):  
Infection Prevention ◽  
Bloodstream Infections ◽  
Central Line ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Prevention Strategies ◽  
Healthcare Associated Infection ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
The Past ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
Current Practices

Central line–associated bloodstream infections cause morbidity and mortality in children. We explore the evidence for prevention of central line–associated bloodstream infections in children, assess current practices, and propose research topics to improve prevention strategies.

INCIDENCE OF ABDOMINAL TUBERCULOSIS IN PATIENTS PRESENTING WITH PAIN ABDOMEN

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-15
Author(s):  
Pankaj Prasad Verma ◽  
Manjar Ali ◽  
Sanjay Singh ◽  
Vinay Pratap
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Services ◽  
Abdominal Tuberculosis ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Medical Sciences ◽  
Major Health Problem ◽  
Major Health ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Abdominal Symptoms ◽  
Pain Abdomen ◽  
Considerable Morbidity

Tuberculosis is a major health problem worldwide and in India continues to be responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality despite tremendous effort made in diagnosis, prophylaxis and therapy. The disease may involve any system of body but abdomen is one of the commonest site of involvement after lungs. This study is carrying to nd out Incidence of Abdominal Tuberculosis in patients of pain abdomen presenting as acute/chronic cases. The present study was carried out in the Department of Surgery, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, from April 2018 to September 2019. The total number of cases selected disease remains early detection. A continual awareness on the part of the clinician of the possibility of abdominal Tuberculosis in many patients with obscure abdominal symptoms should avoid errors and aid in the detection of a condition, which if treated early, not only produces remarkable remission and relief on the part of for this study was 1800. According to the presentation, the patients were clinically divided into 2 broad groups: those who were admitted as acute emergencies and those who came with a chronic presentation. From these two groups 100 cases were fall in our inclusion criteria. Of these 100 patients, most were in their third or fourth decades of life, and females were approx two times more commonly affected as their male counterparts, maintaining an approximate ratio of 1.86:1. Thus we had a 5.55 % incidence of abdominal Tuberculosis in this series. The development of cheap and efcient procedures for early diagnosis remains one of the practical problems to battle this disease, because the only way to decrease morbidity and mortality of this the patients but also takes unnecessary burden off the health care services.

CASE SERIES: A SPECTRUM OF FUNGAL INFECTIONS IN COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-30
Author(s):  
Venkatesh B. C. ◽  
Rajendra Rao K. M. ◽  
K. N. Mohan Rao
Keyword(s):  
Diabetes Mellitus ◽  
Fungal Infections ◽  
Virus Disease ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Major Health ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
Patients With Diabetes ◽  
Causative Agents

Corona virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is causing a major health crisis across the globe. With the increasing number of fungal infections associated with COVID-19 being reported, it is imperative to understand the spectrum of such infections. Most documented cases have been reported in patients with diabetes mellitus or treatment with immunomodulators. The most common causative agents are Aspergillus, Candida or Mucorales. This series aims to portray the spectrum of fungal infections associated with COVID-19.

Conditions of Confinement within Security Prisons: Scandinavia and California

1985 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Snortum ◽  
Kåre Bødal
Keyword(s):  
Living Conditions ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Prison Programs ◽  
Staffing Ratios ◽  
The Past ◽  
International Reputation ◽  
State Prisons ◽  
And Function ◽  
American State

Within the past three decades, the Scandinavian countries have acquired an international reputation for the development of innovative and humane prisons. Most of the favorable attention from journalists and social scientists has centered upon the socalled “model prisons,” which are typically smaller, newer, and “open.” However, the majority of Scandinavian prisoners are still incarcerated in the larger, older, locked prisons that are rather traditional in design and function. One might question whether these traditional prisons are, in fact, superior to American state prisons and whether they would meet emerging U.S. standards for conditions of confinement. This investigation surveyed the nature of prison programs, staffing ratios, living conditions, and visiting conditions within 16 “closed” or secure prisons, including 4 each from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and California. On most measures, the conditions of confinement were most severe in California prisons, much less severe in Finnish prisons, and least severe in Norwegian and Swedish prisons.

scholarly journals Estimating Economic Losses Caused by COVID-19 under Multiple Control Measure Scenarios with a Coupled Infectious Disease—Economic Model: A Case Study in Wuhan, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 11753
Author(s):  
Xingtian Chen ◽  
Wei Gong ◽  
Xiaoxu Wu ◽  
Wenwu Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Control Measure ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Economic Cost ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Multiple Control ◽  
Health Crisis

Background: The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic has caused an unprecedented public health crisis and drastically impacted the economy. The relationship between different control measures and economic losses becomes a research hotspot. Methods: In this study, the SEIR infectious disease model was revised and coupled with an economic model to quantify this nonlinear relationship in Wuhan. The control measures were parameterized into two factors: the effective number of daily contacts (people) (r); the average waiting time for quarantined patients (day) (g). Results: The parameter r has a threshold value that if r is less than 5 (people), the number of COVID-19 infected patients is very close to 0. A “central valley” around r = 5~6 can be observed, indicating an optimal control measure to reduce economic losses. A lower value of parameter g is beneficial to stop COVID-19 spread with a lower economic cost. Conclusion: The simulation results demonstrate that implementing strict control measures as early as possible can stop the spread of COVID-19 with a minimal economic impact. The quantitative assessment method in this study can be applied in other COVID-19 pandemic areas or countries.

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