scholarly journals The Vaccine and Its Simulacra: Agnotology, Ontology and Biopolitics in France, 1800–1865

Administory ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-192
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

Abstract The advent of smallpox vaccine in France in 1800 inaugurates a new relationship between administration, public health and the definition of medical facts. As Napoleon himself refused to establish compulsory vaccination, a Comité de vaccine was established so as to impose the idea of a riskless vaccine protecting forever from smallpox. This article studies how human experimentation, clinical experience, medical imagery and statistics maintained the idea of a perfect vaccine for six decades, despite the multiplication of cases of post-vaccination smallpox and vaccine contaminations.

2021 ◽  
pp. 175797592199571
Author(s):  
Sikopo Nyambe ◽  
Taro Yamauchi

Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) factors are responsible for 11.4% of deaths in Zambia, making WASH a key public health concern. Despite annual waterborne disease outbreaks in the nation’s peri-urban (slum) settlements being linked to poor WASH, few studies have proactively analysed and conceptualised peri-urban WASH and its maintaining factors. Our study aimed to (a) establish residents’ definition of peri-urban WASH and their WASH priorities; and (b) use ecological theory to analyse the peri-urban WASH ecosystem, highlighting maintaining factors. Our study incorporated 16 young people (aged 17–24) residing in peri-urban Lusaka, Zambia in a photovoice exercise. Participants took photographs answering the framing question, ‘What is WASH in your community?’ Then, through contextualisation and basic codifying, participants told the stories of their photographs and made posters to summarise problems and WASH priorities. Participant contextualisation and codifying further underwent theoretical thematic analysis to pinpoint causal factors alongside key players, dissecting the peri-urban WASH ecosystem via the five-tier ecological theory ranging from intrapersonal to public policy levels. Via ecological theory, peri-urban WASH was defined as: (a) poor practice (intrapersonal, interpersonal); (b) a health hazard (community norm); (c) substandard and unregulated (public policy, organisational); and (d) offering hope for change (intrapersonal, interpersonal). Linked to these themes, participant findings revealed a community level gap, with public policy level standards, regulations and implementation having minimal impact on overall peri-urban WASH and public health due to shallow community engagement and poor acknowledgement of the WASH realities of high-density locations. Rather than a top-down approach, participants recommended increased government–resident collaboration, offering residents more ownership and empowerment for intervention, implementation and defending of preferred peri-urban WASH standards.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Alexis De Crescenzo ◽  
Barbara Alison Gabella ◽  
Jewell Johnson

Abstract Background. The transition in 2015 to the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Disease, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) in the USA led public health professionals to propose a surveillance definition of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that uses ICD-10-CM codes. The proposed definition excludes “unspecified injury of the head,” previously included in the ICD-9-CM TBI definition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this change in surveillance methods on monthly rates of TBI-related emergency department visits in Colorado from 2012 to 2017.Results. The monthly rate of TBI-related emergency department visits in the transition month to ICD-10-CM (October 2015) decreased 41 visits per 100,000 population (p-value <0.0001), compared to September 2015, and remained low through December 2017, due to the exclusion of “unspecified injury of head” (ICD-10-CM code S09.90) in the proposed TBI definition. Conclusion. This study highlights a challenge in creating a standardized set of TBI ICD-10-CM codes for public health surveillance that provides comparable yet clinically relevant estimates over time. The findings inform estimation of TBI magnitude based on ICD coded data and decisions about allocating TBI resources based on an estimated TBI magnitude.


Epidemiology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (Suppl) ◽  
pp. S130 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Michelozzi ◽  
F deʼDonato ◽  
D DʼIppoliti ◽  
M DʼOvidio ◽  
C Marino ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Devon L Barrett ◽  
Katharine W Rainer ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Travis W Blalock

Background: Since the implementation of social distancing practices during the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic there have been a myriad of definitions for ‘social distancing.’ The objective of this study was to determine students’ awareness of the various definitions of social distancing, how strictly they adhered to social distancing guidelines, and how they perceived the importance of various social distancing practices.  Methods: This cross-sectional survey was distributed via email to students at Emory-affiliated graduate schools, including the Medical, Nursing, and Public Health Schools. Results: Of the 2,453 recipients of the survey, 415 students responded (16.9% response rate). The majority of respondents were medical students (n=225, 55.6%). Of the respondents, 357 noted that they “frequently” or “always” abided by social distancing. The most common definition of social distancing with which respondents were familiar was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s (n=276 of 369 responses, 74.8%). There were significant differences across groups  when grouping students by the definition of social distancing that they were aware of, the social distancing guideline they most closely followed, and their school of attendance regarding the importance of specific social distancing examples (p<0.05 for each). Conclusions: A survey of healthcare students identified differences in the importance of social distancing practices based on the definition of social distancing that they were aware of. The results of this study underscore the importance of having unified definitions of public health messaging, which ultimately may impact disease spread.


Author(s):  
José Ferraz-Caetano ◽  
João Paiva ◽  
Francisco Malta Romeiras

Resumo No final do século XIX, a química ganhou notoriedade como uma das principais “ciências ao serviço” da nação. O surgimento de novos tópicos, métodos e práticas úteis contribuíram para a valorização da química e para a definição de medidas governamentais em temas como saúde pública, educação e proteção ambiental. Lente na Academia Politécnica do Porto entre 1877 e 1910, António Ferreira da Silva (1853–1923) desempenhou um papel central na modernização do ensino e da investigação em química em Portugal. Ferreira da Silva foi responsável pela introdução de cursos suplementares de química, pela reformulação do ensino prático, e pela elaboração de novos procedimentos e regulamentos de ensino “que em muito engrandeceram a educação científica” em Portugal. Enquanto lente da Academia Politécnica do Porto, Ferreira da Silva privilegiou ainda a articulação entre o Laboratório da Academia e as indústrias nacionais, contribuindo, em larga medida, para emergência da Química Analítica como uma nova disciplina.Palavras-chave: António Ferreira da Silva; Academia Politécnica do Porto; Química Analítica. Abstract By the turn of the nineteenth century, chemistry had become a “science at the service” of the nation. The emergence of useful topics, methods, and practices contributed to the valorization of chemistry and to the definition of new governmental directives on issues such as public health, education and environment. Lecturer at the Academia Politécnica do Porto between 1877 and 1911, António Ferreira da Silva (1853–1923) played a crucial role in the modernization of the teaching and practice of chemistry in Portugal. Ferreira da Silva created new supplementary chemistry courses, reformed the practical teaching of chemistry, and drafted new proceedings and syllabi “that glorified scientific education” in Portugal. As lecturer of the Academia Politécnica do Porto, he made important steps in the establishment of collaborations between the Academia’s Laboratory and national industries, which largely contributed to the emergence of Analytical Chemistry as an autonomous discipline. Keywords: António Ferreira da Silva; Academia Politécnica do Porto; Analytical Chemistry.


Author(s):  
K.S. Joseph ◽  
Lily Lee ◽  
Laura Arbour ◽  
Nathalie Auger ◽  
Elizabeth K. Darling ◽  
...  

AbstractThe archaic definition and registration processes for stillbirth currently prevalent in Canada impede both clinical care and public health. The situation is fraught because of definitional problems related to the inclusion of induced abortions at ≥20 weeks’ gestation as stillbirths: widespread uptake of prenatal diagnosis and induced abortion for serious congenital anomalies has resulted in an artefactual temporal increase in stillbirth rates in Canada and placed the country in an unfavourable position in international (stillbirth) rankings. Other problems with the Canadian stillbirth definition and registration processes extend to the inclusion of fetal reductions (for multi-fetal pregnancy) as stillbirths, and the use of inconsistent viability criteria for reporting stillbirth. This paper reviews the history of stillbirth registration in Canada, provides a rationale for updating the definition of fetal death and recommends a new definition and improved processes for fetal death registration. The recommendations proposed are intended to serve as a starting point for reformulating issues related to stillbirth, with the hope that building a consensus regarding a definition and registration procedures will facilitate clinical care and public health.


2021 ◽  
pp. e1-e9
Author(s):  
Mónica García

The earliest sickness survey of the US Public Health Service, which started in 1915, was the Service’s first socioeconomic study of an industrial community. It was also the first to define illness as a person’s inability to work. The survey incorporated the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company’s definition of illness, which, instead of sickness rates, focused on duration of illness as a proxy of time lost from work. This kind of survey took place in the broader context of the reform movements of the Progressive Era and the social surveys conducted in the United States, which led to the creation of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations, where the Service’s sickness survey originated. The Service’s focus on the socioeconomic classification of families and definition of illness as the inability to work enabled it to show the strong link between poverty and illness among industrial workers. The leader of the survey, Edgar Sydenstricker, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company came up with new ways to measure the health of the population, which also influenced the Service’s studies of the effects of the Great Depression on public health and the National Health Survey of 1935–1936. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print October 28, 2021: e1–e9. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306454 )


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ihoghosa Iyamu ◽  
Alice X.T. Xu ◽  
Oralia Gómez-Ramírez ◽  
Aidan Ablona ◽  
Hsiu-Ju Chang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Despite increasing interest in digital public health, there appears to be a lack of clarity and consensus on its definition. OBJECTIVE In this scoping review, we assessed formal and informal definitions of digital public health in the literature. METHODS We conducted a scoping literature search in OVID Medline, Embase, Google Scholar and on 14 government and intergovernmental agency websites encompassing six geographical regions. Among a total of 409 full articles identified, we reviewed 12 publications that formally defined digital public health and/or informally described the integration of digital technologies in public health in relation to digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation, and conducted a thematic analysis of the identified definitions. RESULTS We identified two explicit definitions of digital public health with divergent meanings. While one definition is predicated on digitalization, and involves the integration of digital technologies to achieve existing public health goals, the other implies transformation of public health services and goals, leveraging digital technology to improve health outcomes. Further, we found that when described in relation to public health, digitization refers to the conversion of analog records to digital information, digitalization involves the integration of digital technologies into public health operations, and digital transformation involves a cultural shift that pervasively integrates digital technologies and reorganizes service based on the health needs of the public. CONCLUSIONS The definition of digital public health remains contested in the literature. Public health researchers and practitioners need to clarify these conceptual definitions to harness opportunities to integrate digital technologies in public health in a way that maximizes their potential to improve public health outcomes. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.2196/preprints.27686


Toxic Shock ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 48-76
Author(s):  
Sharra L. Vostral

How a set of symptoms was stabilized into a defined illness with correlative healthcare practices required a great degree of consensus. This chapter traces how medical professionals, including family physicians, pediatricians, nephrologists, and specialized epidemiologists at the state and national levels, encountered ill girls and women, and collaborated through their networks to create a definition of toxic shock syndrome (TSS) and identify emerging cases. It took careful epidemiology to link TSS with tampon use, in part due to the assumption that tampons were inert. Scientific evidence associating TSS with tampons was all the more crucial in order to create a convincing case that it was a threat to public health, and that women should be warned of their use. Challenges by corporations and corporate-sponsored scientists to the epidemiological data questioned the legitimacy and the conclusion that tampons were associated with TSS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (12) ◽  
pp. 2202-2211
Author(s):  
Nicholas Freudenberg ◽  
Kelley Lee ◽  
Kent Buse ◽  
Jeff Collin ◽  
Eric Crosbie ◽  
...  

In recent years, the concept of commercial determinants of health (CDoH) has attracted scholarly, public policy, and activist interest. To date, however, this new attention has failed to yield a clear and consistent definition, well-defined metrics for quantifying its impact, or coherent directions for research and intervention. By tracing the origins of this concept over 2 centuries of interactions between market forces and public health action and research, we propose an expanded framework and definition of CDoH. This conceptualization enables public health professionals and researchers to more fully realize the potential of the CDoH concept to yield insights that can be used to improve global and national health and reduce the stark health inequities within and between nations. It also widens the utility of CDoH from its main current use to study noncommunicable diseases to other health conditions such as infectious diseases, mental health conditions, injuries, and exposure to environmental threats. We suggest specific actions that public health professionals can take to transform the burgeoning interest in CDoH into meaningful improvements in health. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(12):2202–2211. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306491 )


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