Showing papers on "Plague (disease) published in 1987"

The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society

Abstract: DuBos et al examine the social aspects of the TB epidemic, along with some of the biological factors. They show how TB was romaticized, how it was portrayed as a demon coming to rob the healthy of life, and how it sparked scientific invention - in particular the stethescope. The introduction is wonderful as it lays out the basic parts of the book.

Women in the Medieval English Countryside: Gender and Household in Brigstock before the Plague

Abstract: In this book, Judith Bennett addresses the gap in our knowledge of medieval country women by examining how their lives differed from those of rural men. Drawing on her study of an English manor in the early-fourteenth century, she finds that rural women were severely restricted in their public roles and rights primarily because of their household status as dependents of their husbands, rather than because of a notion of female inferiority. Adolescent women and widows, by virtue of their unmarried status, enjoyed greater legal and public freedom than did their married counterparts.

The Oxford Book of Death

Abstract: Editor's Note Introduction Definitions Views and Attitudes The Hour of Death Suicide Mourning Graveyards and Funerals Resurrections and Immortalities Hereafters Revenants War, Plague and Persecution Love and Death Children Animals Epitaphs, Requiems and Last Words Acknowledgements Indexes

Morbidity in historical plague epidemics.

Abstract: Morbidity in plague epidemics is an almost totally neglected field of research. In the present paper the evidence is presented and related to problems currently debated. The evidence clearly indicates that plague has a strong capacity for diffusion, leading to average morbidity rates in Tuscany 1630–2 (seven communities) and southern France 1720–2 (33 communities) of 44 and 55 per cent respectively. Combined with a lethality rate of close to eight per cent as in France, an epidemic pattern emerges which may serve to explain the reduction of the population during the late middle ages. Morbidity rates did not increase with increasing population densities, but were highest in small village communities, lowest in (small) towns and at an intermediate level in cities. This pattern has previously been observed in India, but no explanation was found. It is shown that the rat-based epidemiological model could serve to explain this peculiar pattern. This conclusion is supported by the few studies in which the sprea...

The population of Egypt in the nineteenth century.

Abstract: The population of Egypt in the 19th century is discussed in terms of uneven population growth the continuity and change in demographic patterns and the urbanization patterns of new developments Cairo and Alexandria. Data are from the censuses of 1800 1846 1847 1882 and 1897 and correspond to 4 main historical events: the French occupation by Bonaparte the reign of Muhammad Ali European imperialism and the nationalist uprising of "Urabi Pasha" and the British rule. There was an Egyptian population increase of 1.2% annually between 1847-82 and an annual increase of 2.4% between 1881-97. Extrapolations indicate that the figures for 1882 and 1847 were not accurate estimates. The century is marked by pre- and post-1840 were pre-1840 is characterized by cholera and plague and the large-scale conscription and harsh requisitions. The procedures for counting are identified. The demographic patterns of the period 1800-30 show an annual population growth rate of 3-4/1000 or 4.5 million inhabitants before Muhammad Ali seized power. Population estimated of 4.5 million are given for 1800 5.0 million for 1830 and 1840 5.4 million for 1848 8.0 million for 1882 and 9.734 million for 1987. The period of 1840-60 was marked by the transition form a semistagnant to a steady and assured population growth. The historical descriptions of 1800-50 show a rather somber state of health with nutritional problems such as faulty conservation and utilization of food and scarcity and deficiency of food. The diseases prevalent were the equivalent of dysentery and rachitis. Infant mortality must have been very high. Plague and smallpox were ravaging the country. Estimates are given of 50000-60000 deaths <5 years with 10-12000 deaths to infants <1 year. Smallpox alone may have contributed 40-50/1000 infant deaths. The increase in the annual death rate was 3-4/1000. The plague accounted for high death rates between 1799-1803 1813-25 1834-44 and figures are estimated at 150- 500000 in 1835. Birth rate was high at 50/1000 and annual births of 220-250000 annually between 1825-30. Vaccinations began in 1827 and were administered by barbers. By the end of Muhammad Alis rule plague and smallpox were almost gone. At midcentury the demographic trend was a high birth rate high mortality rate and a rapid increase in population which contrasts with the preceding stable period. Up to the turn of the century there still occurred outbreaks of cholera which slowed demographic expansion. The foreign population rose after 1840 from .76% of the total population to 1.57% of the population in 1897 and affected urbanization.

Bacterial Diseases of Fish Associated with Human Health

Abstract: As this country continues to increase its food fish output without increasing the water acreage, and environmental wastes continue to plague fish production, we can expect to encounter more zoonotic organisms, especially enteric-like organisms. Since 1972, the number of enteric genera has doubled and the species have tripled. The veterinarian engaged in aquatic animal medicine should be aware that aquatic pets or food fish can be associated with human disease and respond accordingly. In such cases, the veterinarian plays a major role in maintaining human health.

Entomological Warfare: History of the Use of Insects as Weapons of War

Abstract: The use of living organisms to wage war dates back thousands of years; poisoning enemy wells wid, decomposing corpses is an ancient practice. In the 14th century, the Tartar army captured Kaffa by catapulting the bodies of plague victims into the city, and the Russians are said to have used a similar technique against the Swedes in the 18th century (Harris & Paxman 1982). In the 19th century, the British used blankets infected with smallpox in an attempt to wipe out whole tribes of North American Indians (McCarthy 1970, Harris & Paxman 1982). However, entomological warfare (i.e., the use of insects and other arthropods to vector diseases or destroy other resources [e.g., food supplies]) is a relatively new military concept.

Plague, rats and the Bible.

Abstract: We have seen a 44-year·old Caucasian woman with systemic lupus erythematosus of 20 years' duration and mild renal failure due to membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, who has been on prednisolone for 10 years and has recently developed several biopsy-confirmed lesions of porokeratosis of Mibelli on her arms. In the last 6 years she has also developed multiple viral warts on her hands, arms and legs, herpes zoster of the third thoracic dermatome, a basal cell carcinoma on her nose, a keratoacanthoma on her left upper eyelid and has had a hysterectomy for in situ carcinoma of the cervix. This case not only provides further anecdotal evidence of an association between porokeratosis and immunosuppression, but also emphasizes the importance of immunocompetence in protecting against skin neoplasms and infections. C E H GRATTAN Department of Dermatology A P CHRISTOPHER The General Hospital, Birmingham

Informed consent for the man on the Clapham omnibus: an English cure for "the American disease"

Abstract: The English I often express distaste for American-style medical malpractice litigation. It has been referred to as "the American dis­ ease,"2 and the English judiciary sometimes prides itself on resistance to the plague. 3 Although precise comparative statistics are difficult to obtain, approximately ten times as many claims for medical malprac­ tice are filed against American physicians as are filed against their counterparts in England.4 Differences in legal rules, among many other factors, explain why the English medical malpractice litigation

Plague in a Free-ranging Mule Deer from Wyoming

Abstract: (McAllister et al., 1984, Helgol. Meeresunters. 37: 317-328), this is the first report of IPNV-neutra!izing activity in a wild, nonsalmonid species of fish. Contribution No. 7228 of the Journal Series of the Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611. Funds for this study were provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Striped Bass Emergency Committee, No. 14-16-0009-1544, WO. No. 17. Striped bass were provided by personnel of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. We especially thank J. Boone, J. Uphoff, D. Costen, and R. Lukacovic for their assistance.

A personal view of the history of the genus Yersinia

Abstract: The first recorded experience Australia had of the genus Yersinia was the arrival in 1889 of a French expedition led by Pasteur's nephew, Dr. Adrien Loir. At that time Australia was in the grips of an epidemic of rabbits, and Loir's purpose was to eradicate the rabbits by means of fowl plague (Pasteurella multocida). Sadly, bureaucratic and political obstacles prevailed, and Loir was never granted permission to release his biological control agent. Alexander Yersin had been tempted to join Loir's expedition, but elected in the end to travel to Hong Kong, where he discovered the plague bacillus. Had he gone to Australia, we might not now be speaking of the genus Yersinia... Historically, Yersinia pestis has affected not only world history but literature as well. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the tragic denouement can be attributed directly to the consequences of the Great Plague. In times of plague, cities closed their gates to travellers, and houses their doors and windows. Thus Laurence's explanatory letter was prevented from reaching Romeo, who returned to take his life beside the drugged (but living) body of his beloved. Not only was the contemporary literature from which Shakespeare drew inspiration full of references to the plague, but he himself had experienced the social effects of the plague at first hand. The recent rejection of the name Y. pseudotuberculosis var. pestis in favour of Y. pestis is fitting, not simply on the grounds of preventing confusion - after all, Y. pseudotuberculosis can be an equally lethal pathogen. However, a review of the epidemiology for Y. pestis since the First Pandemic in the 6th Century AD lends support to Devignat's hypothesis that Y. pseudotuberculosis evolved from Y. pestis, rather than vice versa. This probably occurred in Europe shortly before the Second Pandemic, and the new mutant spread slowly through the European rodent population, immunising the carriers against plague. In other parts of the world which continued to be affected by plague, the rodent populations remained susceptible because they had not been immunised by exposure to Y. pseudotuberculosis. In some areas which have not been affected by plague, it is also possible that the native rodent populations have been immunised by Y. enterocolitica and its relatives. The plague, the first biological weapon, has killed more people than man's wars. It is our duty, as bacteriologists handling this pathogen, to refuse to allow our work to be used in modern warfare, to refuse to participate in any further warfare against humanity itself.

Selected arthropod-borne diseases. Plague, Lyme disease, and babesiosis.

Abstract: The incidence of plague, one of the oldest arthropod-borne diseases, has increased during the past 10 years in the United States Domestic carnivores are playing an increased role in the occurrence of human cases The cat is now the principal cause of primary human pneumonic plague in the United States Lyme disease and babesiosis, which were initially thought to be limited to specific local regions, are much more widespread than originally thought

Plague situation in Thailand (1985).

Abstract: Ce travail presente le programme actuel de surveillance de la peste, les resultats de la surveillance des rongeurs et des puces et les mesures preventives

[The plague of 1647-1657 in the Western Mediterranean].

Abstract: This is a survey of the literature concerning the plague outbreak that occurred in the Western Mediterranean in the mid-seventeenth century. The author first reviews the chronology and itinerary of the epidemic which began in Valencia in June 1647. He then examines loss of life in the affected areas. Finally he discusses various topics related to the epidemic including the reliability of data in parochial registries the impact of the epidemic on nuptiality and family structure apparent female excess mortality medical and sanitary efforts dealing with the epidemic and its demographic and socioeconomic consequences.

A new journal of the plague year

Abstract: This may serve a little to describe the dreadful condition of that day, though it is impossible to say anything that is able to give a true idea of it to those who did not see it, other than this, that it was indeed very, very, very dreadful, and such as no tongue can express.

[The plague of 1647-1658 in the Western Mediterranean: the Italian side].

Abstract: The author first describes the geographic diffusion of the plague that occurred in the Western Mediterranean in the mid-seventeenth century. He then discusses the effects of the outbreak in various parts of Italy and its demographic and socioeconimic consequences. (ANNOTATION)