Public Health Biology and Human Disease Risk

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Disease Risk

5. Public Health Biology and Human Disease Risk

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime A. Corvin ◽  
Thomas Unnasch ◽  
Amy Alman ◽  
Ira Richards ◽  
Karen D. Liller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Disease Risk

Educated Guesses: Health Risk Assessment in Environmental Impact Statements

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-427
Author(s):  
Pamela D. Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
National Environmental Policy Act ◽  
The Public ◽  
Environmental Impact Statements ◽  
National Environmental ◽  
Scientific Tool ◽  
Predicted Risk

Environmental pollution threatens public health. The search for solutions has advanced the frontiers of science and law. Efforts to protect the environment and public health begin with describing potential adverse consequences of human activities and characterizing the predicted risk. The National Environmental Policy Act requires the preparation of environmental impact statements to describe the effects of proposed federal projects and provide information for agency decisionmakers and the public.Risks to public health are particularly difficult to quantify because of uncertainty about the relation between exposure to environmental contamination and disease. Risk assessment is the current scientific tool to present estimates of risk. The methodology has created controversy, however, when underlying assumptions and uncertainties are not clearly presented. Critics caution that the methodology is vulnerable to bias. This Note evaluates the use of risk assessment in the environmental impact statement process and offers recommendations to ensure informed decisions.

scholarly journals Carios kelleyi (Acari: Ixodida: Argasidae) Infected With Rickettsial Agents Documented Infesting Housing in Kansas, United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robyn M Nadolny ◽  
Ashley C Kennedy ◽  
James M Rodgers ◽  
Zachary T Vincent ◽  
Hannah Cornman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Health Center ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Multilocus Sequence Typing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Rickettsia Species ◽  
History Of ◽  
Tick Borne Disease ◽  
Blood Meals

Abstract During September–December 2018, 25 live ticks were collected on-post at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in a home with a history of bat occupancy. Nine ticks were sent to the Army Public Health Center Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory and were identified as Carios kelleyi (Cooley and Kohls, 1941), a species that seldom bites humans but that may search for other sources of blood meals, including humans, when bats are removed from human dwellings. The ticks were tested for numerous agents of human disease. Rickettsia lusitaniae was identified by multilocus sequence typing to be present in two ticks, marking the first detection of this Rickettsia agent in the United States and in this species of tick. Two other Rickettsia spp. were also detected, including an endosymbiont previously associated with C. kelleyi and a possible novel Rickettsia species. The potential roles of C. kelleyi and bats in peridomestic Rickettsia transmission cycles warrant further investigation.

scholarly journals The ‘Icarus effect’ of preventative health behaviors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Carrignon ◽  
R. Alexander Bentley ◽  
Matthew Silk ◽  
Nina H. Fefferman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Preventative Health ◽  
Individual Observation ◽  
Over Time

1AbstractOngoing efforts to combat the global pandemic of COVID-19 via public health policy have revealed the critical importance of understanding how individuals understand and react to infection risks. We here present a model to explore how both individual observation and social learning are likely to shape behavioral, and therefore epidemiological, dynamics over time. Efforts to delay and reduce infections can compromise their own success, especially in populations with age-structure in both disease risk and social learning —two critical features of the current COVID-19 crisis. Our results concur with anecdotal observations of age-based differences in reactions to public health recommendations. We show how shifting reliance on types of learning affect the course of an outbreak, and could therefore factor into policy-based interventions.

Effects of climate change on the spread of zika virus: a public health threat

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hina Asad ◽  
David O. Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
South America ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Viral Disease ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Public Health Threat ◽  
Vector Borne

Abstract Zika is a vector-borne viral disease transmitted to humans primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The increased climate instability has contributed to the emergence of infections carried by mosquitoes like dengue, chikungunya and zika. While infection with the zika virus is not new, the recent epidemic of microcephaly in Brazil and other countries in South America resulting from the infection of pregnant women with the zika virus raise a number of serious public health concerns. These include the question of how climate change affects the range of zika vectors, what can we do to shorten the length of mosquito season, how and why the symptoms of zika infection have changed and what can be done to reduce the burden of human disease from this infection? Another important question that needs to be answered is what are the factors that caused the zika virus to leave the non-human primates and/or other mammals and invade the human population?

scholarly journals Is the time right for quantitative public health guidelines on sitting? A narrative review of sedentary behaviour research paradigms and findings

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 377-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Stamatakis ◽  
Ulf Ekelund ◽  
Ding Ding ◽  
Mark Hamer ◽  
Adrian E Bauman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Sedentary Behaviour ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
Research Paradigms ◽  
Sedentary Breaks

Sedentary behaviour (SB) has been proposed as an ‘independent’ risk factor for chronic disease risk, attracting much research and media attention. Many countries have included generic, non-quantitative reductions in SB in their public health guidelines and calls for quantitative SB targets are increasing. The aim of this narrative review is to critically evaluate key evidence areas relating to the development of guidance on sitting for adults. We carried out a non-systematic narrative evidence synthesis across seven key areas: (1) definition of SB, (2) independence of sitting from physical activity, (3) use of television viewing as a proxy of sitting, (4) interpretation of SB evidence, (5) evidence on ‘sedentary breaks’, (6) evidence on objectively measured sedentary SB and mortality and (7) dose response of sitting and mortality/cardiovascular disease. Despite research progress, we still know little about the independent detrimental health effects of sitting, and the possibility that sitting is mostly the inverse of physical activity remains. Unresolved issues include an unclear definition, inconsistencies between mechanistic and epidemiological studies, over-reliance on surrogate outcomes, a very weak epidemiological evidence base to support the inclusion of ‘sedentary breaks’ in guidelines, reliance on self-reported sitting measures, and misinterpretation of data whereby methodologically inconsistent associations are claimed to be strong evidence. In conclusion, public health guidance requires a consistent evidence base but this is lacking for SB. The development of quantitative SB guidance, using an underdeveloped evidence base, is premature; any further recommendations for sedentary behaviour require development of the evidence base and refinement of the research paradigms used in the field.

scholarly journals A Century of Change towards Prevention and Minimal Intervention in Cariology

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 611-617 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.P.T. Innes ◽  
C.H. Chu ◽  
M. Fontana ◽  
E.C.M. Lo ◽  
W.M. Thomson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Dental Caries ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Dental Health ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Surgical Specialty ◽  
Minimal Intervention

Better understanding of dental caries and other oral conditions has guided new strategies to prevent disease and manage its consequences at individual and public health levels. This article discusses advances in prevention and minimal intervention dentistry over the last century by focusing on some milestones within scientific, clinical, and public health arenas, mainly in cariology but also beyond, highlighting current understanding and evidence with future prospects. Dentistry was initially established as a surgical specialty. Dental caries (similar to periodontitis) was considered to be an infectious disease 100 years ago. Its ubiquitous presence and rampant nature—coupled with limited diagnostic tools and therapeutic treatment options—meant that these dental diseases were managed mainly by excising affected tissue. The understanding of the diseases and a change in their prevalence, extent, and severity, with evolutions in operative techniques, technologies, and materials, have enabled a shift from surgical to preventive and minimal intervention dentistry approaches. Future challenges to embrace include continuing the dental profession’s move toward a more patient-centered, evidence-based, less invasive management of these diseases, focused on promoting and maintaining oral health in partnership with patients. In parallel, public health needs to continue to, for example, tackle social inequalities in dental health, develop better preventive and management options for existing disease risk groups (e.g., the growing aging population), and the development of reimbursement and health outcome models that facilitate implementation of these evolving strategies. A century ago, almost every treatment involved injections, a drill or scalpel, or a pair of forceps. Today, dentists have more options than ever before available to them. These are supported by evidence, have a minimal intervention focus, and result in better outcomes for patients. The profession’s greatest challenge is moving this evidence into practice.

scholarly journals Review of whole grain and dietary fiber recommendations and intake levels in different countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Kevin Burke Miller
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Dietary Fiber ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Whole Grains ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Whole Grain ◽  
Dietary Recommendations ◽  
Consumer Adoption ◽  
The Public ◽  
Beijing China

Abstract This review of whole grain and dietary fiber recommendations and intake levels was presented at the symposium on whole grains, dietary fiber, and public health, convened in Beijing, China, on May 11, 2018. The review reflects on inconsistencies among the definitions of whole grains and fiber as well as recommended intake levels in different countries. The lack of consistent dietary recommendations from authoritative sources may delay the regional implementation and consumer adoption of diets that include whole grains and fiber. Currently, few countries include specific intake recommendations for whole grain, and even among those countries with guidance the recommendations can be vague and qualitative. As a result of the well-documented associations between increasing whole grain intake and reduced disease risk, there is compelling evidence to create clear, actionable dietary recommendations for both whole grains and fiber. Furthermore, work is ongoing to develop uniform standards for whole grain and whole-grain food to ensure recommendations are being met. Health and regulatory authorities are encouraged to acknowledge the public health benefits that could be derived from strong, clear whole-grain and dietary fiber recommendations; examine existing definitions (whole grain as an ingredient, whole-grain food, and dietary fiber); and adopt the most appropriate approach to best serve public health needs for their respective populations.

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