Une approche écoanthropologique de la santé publique

Abstract: By the example of environmental monitoring, some applications of geographic information systems (GIS), geostatistics, metadata banking, and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) are presented. These tools are recommended for mapping statistically estimated hot spots of vectors and pathogens. GIS were introduced as tools for spatially modelling the real world. The modelling can be done by mapping objects according to the spatial information content of data. Additionally, this can be supported by geostatistical and multivariate statistical modelling. This is demonstrated by the example of modelling marine habitats of benthic communities and of terrestrial ecoregions. Such ecoregionalisations may be used to predict phenomena based on the statistical relation between measurements of an interesting phenomenon such as, e.g., the incidence of medically relevant species and correlated characteristics of the ecoregions. The combination of meteorological data and data on plant phenology can enhance the spatial resolution of the information on climate change. To this end, meteorological and phenological data have to be correlated. To enable this, both data sets which are from disparate monitoring networks have to be spatially connected by means of geostatistical estimation. This is demonstrated by the example of transformation of site-specific data on plant phenology into surface data. The analysis allows for spatial comparison of the phenology during the two periods 1961-1990 and 1991-2002 covering whole Germany. The changes in both plant phenology and air temperature were proved to be statistically significant. Thus, they can be combined by GIS overlay technique to enhance the spatial resolution of the information on the climate change and use them for the prediction of vector incidences at the regional scale. The localisation of such risk hot spots can be done by geometrically merging surface data on promoting factors. This is demonstrated by the example of the transfer of heavy metals through soils. The predicted hot spots of heavy metal transfer can be validated empirically by measurement data which can be inquired by a metadata base linked with a geographic information system. A corresponding strategy for the detection of vector hot spots in medical epidemiology is recommended. Data on incidences and habitats of the Anophelinae in the marsh regions of Lower Saxony (Germany) were used to calculate a habitat model by CART, which together with climate data and data on ecoregions can be further used for the prediction of habitats of medically relevant vector species. In the future, this approach should be supported by an internet-based information system consisting of three components: metadata questionnaire, metadata base, and GIS to link metadata, surface data, and measurement data on incidences and habitats of medically relevant species and related data on climate, phenology, and ecoregional characteristic conditions.

Abstract: SUMMARY Throughout history, forests dwellers have adapted to permanent changes of forest ecosystems that, in essence, are dynamic. Accordingly, they have long served as models of how humans lived when their lifestyles and genetic endowment were complementary. What is now commonly described as the “paleodiet” tends to be put forward as a benchmark for present-day efforts to promote health and prevent nutritional diseases, even in industrialized countries. Although forest ecosystems provide food and medicines to forest dwellers, over the last half-century these ecosystems have undergone unprecedented pressure to make way for economic growth and industrialization, often at the cost of ecological functions that may affect human health, both in short term (i.e. increase in infectious diseases) and long term (incidence of global change). As radical alterations occur such as deforestation, modification of resource availability, and the penetration of cash economies, forest dwellers encounter increasing difficult...

Abstract: First we remind general considerations concerning biodiversity on earth and particularly the loss of genetic biodiversity that seems irreversible whether its origin is directly or indirectly linked to human activities. Urgent and considerable efforts must be made from now on to cataloge, understand, preserve, and enhance the value of biodiversity while ensuring food safety and human and animal health. Ambitious integrated and multifield research programs must be implemented in order to understand the causes and anticipate the consequences of loss of biodiversity. Such losses are a serious threat to sustainable development and to the quality of life of future generations. They have an influence on the natural balance of global biodiversity in particularly in reducing the capability of species to adapt rapidly by genetic mutations to survive in modified ecosystems. Usually, the natural immune systems of mammals (both human and animal), are highly polymorphic and able to adapt rapidly to new situations. We more specifically discuss the fact that if the genetic diversity of the affected populations is low the invading microorganisms, will suddenly expand and create epidemic outbreaks with risks of pandemic. So biodiversity appears to function as an important barrier (buffer), especially against disease-causing organisms, which can function in different ways. Finally, we discuss the importance of preserving biodiversity mainly in the wildlife ecosystems as an integrated and sustainable approach among others in order to prevent and control the emergence or reemergence of diseases in animals and humans (zoonosis). Although plants are also part of this paradigm, they fall outside our field of study.

Abstract: Le travail de these vise a comprendre les processus et les dynamiques spatiales de la tuberculose en Guyane, en particulier sur l'Ile de Cayenne, et ce par l'identification des facteurs de risque lies a l'emergence et/ou a la persistance de la maladie sur plusieurs annees (1996-2003). La caracterisation des agregats spaciaux de cas de tuberculose est combinee a une analyse phylogeographique des souches de Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolees en Guyane afin de caracteriser les grappes genetiques de cas, et de determiner les circuits de transmission de la maladie. Un systeme d'Information Geographique permet ensuite de cartographier les populations a risque de tuberculose sur l'Ile de Cayenne. Cette carte est produite en couplant la cartographie des cas de tuberculose a un indice de vulnerabilite de la population, base sur l'analyse qualitative de l'environnement urbain. Cette etude revele certains patrons de transmission de la tuberculose sur l'Ile de Cayenne, apportant a la fois des reponses pour les politiques de sante en Guyane et de nouvelles perspectives de recherche.

Abstract: FOR THE POPULATION GENETICIST, diabetes mellitus has long presented an enigma. Here is a relatively frequent disease, often interfering with reproduction by virtue of an onset during the reproductive or even pre-reproductive years, with a well-defined genetic basis, perhaps as simple in many families as a single recessive or incompletely recessive gene (cf. Allan, 1933; Pincus and White, 1933, 1934; Harris, 1950; Steinberg and Wilder, 1952; Lamy, Frezal and de Grouchy, 1957; Steinberg, 1959; Post, 1962a). If the considerable frequency of the disease is of relatively long duration in the history of our species, how can this be accounted for in the face of the obvious and strong genetic selection against the condition? If, on the other hand, this frequency is a relatively recent phenomenon, what changes in the environment are responsible for the increase? Current developments in the study of this disease suggest an explanation with important biological ramifications.

Abstract: In this essay we consider four criticisms of ecological anthropology: its overemphasis on energy, its inability to explain cultural phenomena, its preoccupation with static equilibria, and its lack of clarity about the appropriate units of analysis. Recognizing that some of these criticisms may not be justified, we nevertheless point to parallel concerns in ecology. Further, we ask whether new directions indicated by some ecologists might be appropriate paths for future work in ecological anthropology. A central theme is the desirability of focusing on environmental problems and how people respond to them. The kind of environmental problems we are especially concerned with here are those constituting hazards to the lives of the organisms experiencing them. In other words, we are particularly concerned with problems that carry the risk of morbidity or mortality, the risk of losing an "existential game" in which success consists simply in staying in the game (82, 85; cf 80, cited in 78). Our focus upon hazards and responses to them emerges partly from consideration of neo-Darwinian selection theory. As Colinvaux (22, p. 499) notes: "Selection . . . chooses from among individuals those which are best adapted to avoid the hazards of life at that time and place." Our focus reflects also the new concern of biologists such as Slobodkin (81, 82, 85) with the actual processes of responding to hazards or environmental perturbations rather than with formal alterations in hypothetical genetic systems. Related also is the emerging view among medical scientists that health is a "continuing property, potentially measurable by the individual's ability to rally from insults, whether chemical, physical, infectious, psychological, or social" (7, 8; cf 78). At least some and perhaps all of the insults referred to in the preceding quotation can be subsumed in our category of hazards; even social and psychological insults may evoke physiological "stress" and disease (60, 79) as well as psychological and behavioral adaptive strategies (99). A further influence on us has been the recent proliferation of research and thinking on problems of human response to "natural hazards" in geography (19,

Abstract: The ecological basis of community-The human community may be considered as an ecological product, that is, as the outcome of competitive and accommodative processes which give spatial and temporal distribution to human aggregations and cultural achievements Factors determining size of community-The growth or decline of a given community is a function of its relative strength in the larger competitive process Communities are in constant competition with one another, and any advantage in location, resources, or market organization is forthwith reflected in differential growth The internal structure of community-The utilities, institutions, and inhabitants of a community are spatially distributed and territorially segregated as a result of competition and selection Redistribution and segregation are constantly in process as new factors enter to disturb the competitive relations

Abstract: Culture-Bound or Construct-Bound? The Syndromes and DSM-III.- Sorting the Culture-Bound Syndromes.- I: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest in which some Evidence Supports the Hypothesis of a Neurophysiological Shaping Factor.- A. The Startle Matching Taxon.- The Resolution of the Latah Paradox.- Paradox Lost: The Latah Problem Revisited.- Latah II - Problems with a Purely Symbolic Interpretation: A Reply to Michael G. Kenny.- Shamans and Imu: Among Two Ainu Groups - Toward a Cross-Cultural Model of Interpretation.- Commentary.- B. The Sleep Paralysis Taxon.- Uqamairineq and Uqumanigianiq: Eskimo Sleep Paralysis.- The Old Hag Phenomenon as Sleep Paralysis: A Biocultural Interpretation.- Commentary.- II: Folk Illnesses of Psychiatric Interest in which a Neurophysiological Shaping Factor is only Suspected.- A. The Genital Retraction Taxon.- Koro - A Cultural Disease.- Koro in a Nigerian Male Patient: A Case Report.- The Koro Pattern of Depersonalization in an American Schizophrenic Patient.- Indigenous Koro, A Genital Retraction Syndrome of Insular Southeast Asia: A Critical Review.- Commentary.- B. The Sudden Mass Assault Taxon.- Ethno-Behaviorism and the Culture-Bound Syndromes: The Case of Amok.- Sudden Mass Assault with Grenade: An Epidemic Amok Form from Laos.- The Amok Syndrome in Papua and New Guinea.- Amok.- Commentary.- C. The Running Taxon.- Pibloktoq (Hysteria) Among the Polar Eskimo: An Ethnopsychiatric Study.- Grisi Siknis in Miskito Culture.- The Transformation of Arctic Hysteria.- Commentary.- III: Folk Illnesses Usually Listed as Culture-Bound Psychiatric Syndromes which should Probably No Longer be so Considered.- A. The Fright Illness Taxon.- The Folk Illness Called Susto.- Saladera - A Culture-Bound Misfortune Syndrome in the Peruvian Amazon.- Lanti, Illness by Fright Among Bisayan Filipinos.- Mogo Laya, A New Guinea Fright Illness.- Commentary.- B. The Cannibal Compulsion Taxon.- Windigo Psychosis: The Anatomy of an Emic-Etic Confusion.- Commentaries and Replies.- Commentary.- Append.- Glossary of 'Culture-Bound' or Folk Psychiatric Syndromes.- Charles C. Hughes.- List of Contributors.- to the Index.