Learning from SARS


Book Description

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in late 2002 and 2003 challenged the global public health community to confront a novel epidemic that spread rapidly from its origins in southern China until it had reached more than 25 other countries within a matter of months. In addition to the number of patients infected with the SARS virus, the disease had profound economic and political repercussions in many of the affected regions. Recent reports of isolated new SARS cases and a fear that the disease could reemerge and spread have put public health officials on high alert for any indications of possible new outbreaks. This report examines the response to SARS by public health systems in individual countries, the biology of the SARS coronavirus and related coronaviruses in animals, the economic and political fallout of the SARS epidemic, quarantine law and other public health measures that apply to combating infectious diseases, and the role of international organizations and scientific cooperation in halting the spread of SARS. The report provides an illuminating survey of findings from the epidemic, along with an assessment of what might be needed in order to contain any future outbreaks of SARS or other emerging infections.




Pandemic


Book Description

"Interweaving history, original reportage, and personal narrative, Pandemic explores the origins of epidemics, drawing parallels between the story of cholera-- one of history's most disruptive and deadly pathogens-- and the new pathogens that stalk humankind today"--




China and the Cholera Pandemic


Book Description

Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward campaign organized millions of Chinese peasants into communes in a misguided attempt to rapidly collectivize agriculture with disastrous effects. Catastrophic famine lingered as the global cholera pandemic of the early 1960s spread rampantly through the infected waters of southeastern coastal China. Confronted with a political crisis and the seventh global cholera pandemic in recorded history, the communist government committed to social restructuring in order to affirm its legitimacy and prevent transmission of the disease. Focusing on the Wenzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang Province, the area most seriously stricken by cholera at the time, Xiaoping Fang demonstrates how China’s pandemic was far more than a health incident; it became a significant social and political influence during a dramatic transition for the People’s Republic. China and the Cholera Pandemic reveals how disease control and prevention, executed through the government’s large-scale, clandestine anticholera campaign, were integral components of its restructuring initiatives, aimed at restoring social order. The subsequent rise of an emergency disciplinary health state furthered these aims through quarantine and isolation, which profoundly impacted the social epidemiology of the region, dividing Chinese society and reinforcing hierarchies according to place, gender, and socioeconomic status.







Cholera


Book Description

Research on cholera has contributed both to knowledge of the epidemic in particular, and to a broader understanding of the fundamental ways in which cells communicate with each other. This volume presents current knowledge in historical perspective to enable the practitioner to treat cholera in a more effective manner, and to provide a comprehensive review for the researcher.




Yi Lin Gai Cuo


Book Description




Cholera and the Ecology of Vibrio cholerae


Book Description

Only in recent years has it been revealed that V. cholerae is a normal inhabitant of esturine and riverine waters. This means that even if the disease can be eliminated from human population by vaccines etc. the vibrio will continue to survive independently in the environment. It is likely that the environment is the source of epidemic strains. This is the first book to focus on the implication of these discoveries.




Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911


Book Description

This is the first extended study of cholera in modern Italy, setting Naples in a comparative international framework.




Radiology of Infectious Diseases: Volume 2


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive overview of diagnostic imaging in infectious diseases. It starts with a general review of infection diseases, including their classification, characteristics and epidemiology. In separate chapters, the authors then introduce the radionuclide imaging of 50 kinds of infectious diseases. Volume 1 covers 21 viral infections. Volume 2 has 29 chapters discussing 24 bacterial infections and 5 parasitic infections. Each disease is clearly illustrated using cases combined with high-quality computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The book provides a valuable reference source for radiologists and doctors working in the area of infectious diseases.




The Threat of Pandemic Influenza


Book Description

Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Moreover, recent problems with the availability and strain-specificity of vaccine for annual flu epidemics in some countries and the rise of pandemic strains of avian flu in disparate geographic regions have alarmed experts about the world's ability to prevent or contain a human pandemic. The workshop summary, The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? addresses these urgent concerns. The report describes what steps the United States and other countries have taken thus far to prepare for the next outbreak of "killer flu." It also looks at gaps in readiness, including hospitals' inability to absorb a surge of patients and many nations' incapacity to monitor and detect flu outbreaks. The report points to the need for international agreements to share flu vaccine and antiviral stockpiles to ensure that the 88 percent of nations that cannot manufacture or stockpile these products have access to them. It chronicles the toll of the H5N1 strain of avian flu currently circulating among poultry in many parts of Asia, which now accounts for the culling of millions of birds and the death of at least 50 persons. And it compares the costs of preparations with the costs of illness and death that could arise during an outbreak.