Outbreaks Of Epidemic Diseases Research Articles

The Religious Dimensions of Epidemic Disease: Cholera, the Ghost Rite, and Missionary Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Korea.

One of the most catastrophic pandemics in human history was the repeated spread of cholera in the nineteenth century. In spite of its historical significance, few scholars have studied cholera's influence in East Asia. This paper illustrates how cholera was considered, conceptualized, and treated by Korean people prior to contact with North American medical missionaries in 1885. In particular, the article compares the government-ordered public health measures during the Joseon dynasty, focusing on the "ghost rite" performed during outbreaks of epidemic disease with the work of medical missionaries in the late nineteenth century. This study finds that even after the introduction of Western biomedicine, the Korean people persisted with a religious-based etiology of cholera and other infectious diseases until the twentieth century.

Evaluation of immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the outer membrane porin F (OprF) against Pseudomonas plecoglossicida in large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea)

Large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) farming dominates the marine aquaculture industry in China. However, the epidemic outbreaks of visceral white nodules disease (VWND), caused by bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas plecoglossicida, have emerged as a significant concern within the large yellow croaker industry. Although vaccination is considered to be an effective method for preventing and controlling P. plecoglossicida infection, there is currently no commercially available vaccine targeting this bacterium. In the present study, the outer membrane porin F (OprF) of P. plecoglossicida was characterized and revealed a high sequence similarity with that of other Pseudomonas species. The recombinant OprF protein (rOprF) produced in Escherichia coli was then evaluated for its immunogenicity and protective role against P. plecoglossicida in large yellow croaker. The rOprF was identified to have immunogenicity by Western blot using large yellow croaker anti-P. plecoglossicida sera. Additionally, the indirect immunofluorescence assay (IIFA) provided evidence indicating the surface exposure of OprF in P. plecoglossicida. Fish vaccinated twice via intraperitoneal (IP) injection with the purified rOprF combined with commercial adjuvant ISA 763A VG exhibited a relative percent survival (RPS) of 70.60% after challenge with virulent P. plecoglossicida strain through immersion. The administration of rOprF resulted in a notable increase in specific serum antibody levels and serum lysozyme activity compared to the control groups. The immune-related genes in the spleen and head kidney of rOprF-vaccinated fish were remarkably upregulated compared with the PBS-vaccinated sham group after the P. plecoglossicida challenge. In summary, the findings of this study suggest that rOprF exhibits considerable potential in inducing a robust immune response, making it a viable candidate for vaccination against P. plecoglossicida infection in large yellow croaker.

Two-step light gradient boosted model to identify human west nile virus infection risk factor in Chicago.

West Nile virus (WNV), a flavivirus transmitted by mosquito bites, causes primarily mild symptoms but can also be fatal. Therefore, predicting and controlling the spread of West Nile virus is essential for public health in endemic areas. We hypothesized that socioeconomic factors may influence human risk from WNV. We analyzed a list of weather, land use, mosquito surveillance, and socioeconomic variables for predicting WNV cases in 1-km hexagonal grids across the Chicago metropolitan area. We used a two-stage lightGBM approach to perform the analysis and found that hexagons with incomes above and below the median are influenced by the same top characteristics. We found that weather factors and mosquito infection rates were the strongest common factors. Land use and socioeconomic variables had relatively small contributions in predicting WNV cases. The Light GBM handles unbalanced data sets well and provides meaningful predictions of the risk of epidemic disease outbreaks.

Rapid Visual Detection of Spiroplasma eriocheiris by Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification with Hydroxynaphthol Blue Dye.

In recent years, a new type of Spiroplasma has been found that can cause "tremor disease" of the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis. The outbreak of epidemic tremor disease has caused a serious setback in the Chinese mitten crab farming industry, with an incidence rate of more than 30% and mortality rates of 80-100%. Therefore, finding a sensitive method to detect tremor disease in E. sinensis has become a current research focus. In this research, a loop-mediated isothermal amplification detection method coupled with hydroxynaphthol blue dye (LAMP-HNB) was developed and used to rapidly detect Spiroplasma eriocheiris. First, we designed and synthesized specific outer primers, inner primers and loop primers based on the 16S ribosomal RNA gene of S. eriocheiris. Second, the LAMP-HNB detection method for S. eriocheiris was successfully established by screening the primers, adjusting the temperature and time of the reaction, and optimizing the concentrations of Mg2+ and dNTPs. In the specific tests, only samples infected with S. eriocheiris showed positive results, and other infections caused by bacteria and parasites tested negative, proving that the test has high specificity. Moreover, the detection limit was 2.5 × 10-6ng/µL, indicating high sensitivity. This method for detecting S. eriocheiris provides rapid visual output based on LAMP-HNB detection and is a simple, fast, sensitive, and inexpensive method that can be applied to a wide range of field investigations.

Back to Nature: Medicinal Plants as Promising Sources for Antibacterial Drugs in the Post-Antibiotic Era.

Undoubtedly, the advent of antibiotics in the 19th century had a substantial impact, increasing human life expectancy. However, a multitude of scientific investigations now indicate that we are currently experiencing a phase known as the post-antibiotic era. There is a genuine concern that we might regress to a time before antibiotics and confront widespread outbreaks of severe epidemic diseases, particularly those caused by bacterial infections. These investigations have demonstrated that epidemics thrive under environmental stressors such as climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and detrimental human activities such as wars, conflicts, antibiotic overuse, and pollution. Moreover, bacteria possess a remarkable ability to adapt and mutate. Unfortunately, the current development of antibiotics is insufficient, and the future appears grim unless we abandon our current approach of generating synthetic antibiotics that rapidly lose their effectiveness against multidrug-resistant bacteria. Despite their vital role in modern medicine, medicinal plants have served as the primary source of curative drugs since ancient times. Numerous scientific reports published over the past three decades suggest that medicinal plants could serve as a promising alternative to ineffective antibiotics in combating infectious diseases. Over the past few years, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, saponins, and terpenoids have exhibited noteworthy antibacterial potential, primarily through membrane-disruption mechanisms, protein binding, interference with intermediary metabolism, anti-quorum sensing, and anti-biofilm activity. However, to optimize their utilization as effective antibacterial drugs, further advancements in omics technologies and network pharmacology will be required in order to identify optimal combinations among these compounds or in conjunction with antibiotics.

Expert consensus on diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 infection related cough in children

An epidemic outbreak of the corona virus disease 2019(COVID-19) Omicron variant occurred in most regions of China. Children are susceptible to COVID-19 and the vast majority of them suffer from upper respiratory tract infection. Cough is one of the most common symptoms. COVID-19 infection related cough includes acute cough, persistent cough and chronic cough, and children with original chronic cough or chronic lung disease can also induce or aggravate symptom of cough after infection, which has a great impact on children's physical and mental health. The treatment for COVID-19 infection related cough vary with the etiology. Improper treatment would delay the patient's condition and increase adverse drug reaction. Currently, there is no guideline or consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 infection related cough in children in China, therefore this consensus is drafted. Referring to the latest international research and the diagnostic and therapeutic strategy for COVID-19 infection (Tenth Edition For Trial Implementation), and combining with clinical diagnosis and treatment experience,the consensus elaborates the pathogenesis and etiology of COVID-19 infection related cough, the use of cough relievers and expectorants, as well as the key points of diagnosis and treatment of different etiological factors. It is expected to provide specific and feasible guidance scheme for pediatricians, general practitioners and clinical pharmacists.

Intersensory Experiences of the Plague in Seventeenth-Century London

Summary This article contends that intersensory experiences of the plague are key to comprehending how the inhabitants of seventeenth-century London understood outbreaks of epidemic disease. Interplay between the senses influenced how people understood the processes of disease transmission, the vulnerability of bodies to contract disease and disease prevention. Previous research into the sensory histories of the plague has focused on smell and touch as isolated sensory phenomena. In doing so, studies have tended to suggest that the plague was understood as either an airborne or contagious disease. An intersensory approach reveals that this binary between miasma and contagion was not so clear cut. People navigated their relationships with their bodies, neighbours and the city via a complex web of understandings of epidemic disease, many of which were born out of interactions between the senses.

Astrology, plague, and prognostication in early modern England: A forgotten chapter in the history of public health

Abstract The ability to foresee the outbreak of epidemic disease, and to predict its course, is a highly coveted skill. Most often associated with statistical techniques, such efforts to improve the health of communities are thought to be exclusively modern. Public health more generally is often said to be categorically distinct from pre-modern medicine, which was interested above all in individual patients and rarely considered the broader health of a population. This article challenges these long-entrenched views by showcasing early modern astrologers at work on disease at the population level. Located at the intersection of medicine and mathematics, astrology was once a promising methodology for monitoring the health of the people. Astrologers made annual predictions about the diseases that would predominate in particular regions, disseminating their forecasts widely alongside advice on what should be done in response. Their ability to think in terms of relatively standardized ‘populations’ — alongside their attempts to correlate the incidence of disease with external factors — made astrologers prime candidates for developing novel approaches to epidemics. Before the epidemiologist there was the astrologer, who looked to the stars to find patterns between celestial configurations and major health events, using their findings to model the rise and fall of epidemics.

COVID-19-related hospital admission in spouses of partners in at-risk occupations.

This study aimed to quantify the risk of COVID-19-related hospital admission in spouses living with partners in at-risk occupations in Denmark during 2020-21. Within a registry-based cohort of all Danish employees (N=2 451 542), we identified cohabiting couples, in which at least one member (spouse) held a job that according to a job exposure matrix entailed low risk of occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (N=192 807 employees, 316 COVID-19 hospital admissions). Risk of COVID-19-related hospital admission in such spouses was assessed according to whether their partners were in jobs with low, intermediate or high risk for infection. Overall and sex-specific incidence rate ratios (IRR) of COVID-19-related hospital admission were computed by Poisson regression with adjustment for relevant covariates. The risk of COVID-19-related hospital admission was increased among spouses with partners in high-risk occupations [adjusted IRR (IRRadj)1.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1-2.2], but not intermediate-risk occupations (IRRadj 0.97 95% 0.8-1.3). IRR for having a partner in a high-risk job was elevated during the first three pandemic waves but not in the fourth (IRRadj 0.48 95% CI 0.2-1.5). Sex did not modify the risk of hospital admission. SARS-CoV-2 transmission at the workplace may pose an increased risk of severe COVID-19 among spouses in low-risk jobs living with partners in high-risk jobs, which emphasizes the need for preventive measures at the workplace in future outbreaks of epidemic contagious disease. When available, effective vaccines seem essential.

Құстар миграциясының құс тұмауы вирусының Қазақстанда таралуына әсері

Avian influenza is one of the most dangerous known diseases of poultry. Due to the complete extinction of the entire poultry population, the spread of influenza in poultry farms usually leads to significant economic losses throughout the world. Migratory birds, especially waterfowl, are a natural reservoir of the avian influenza virus. During migration, they exchange with different strains of the virus, causing antigenic drift and antigenic migration, which leads to the emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses. Their seasonal migration plays an important role in the formation of the genetic structure of the viral population. This requires constant observation of the evolution of the avian influenza virus and regular monitoring in various places to prevent new outbreaks of epizootic and epidemic diseases.

Forecast analysis and sliding mode control on a stochastic epidemic model with alertness and vaccination

In this paper, a stochastic SEIR epidemic model is studied with alertness and vaccination. The goal is to stabilize the infectious disease system quickly. The dynamic behavior of the model is analyzed and an integral sliding mode controller with distributed compensation is designed. By using Lyapunov function method, the sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of global positive solutions and the existence of ergodic stationary distributions are obtained. The stochastic center manifold and stochastic average method are used to simplify the system into a one-dimensional Markov diffusion process. The stochastic stability and Hopf bifurcation are analyzed using singular boundary theory. An integral sliding mode controller with non-parallel distributed compensation is designed by linear matrix inequality (LMI) method, which realizes the stability of system and prevents the outbreak of epidemic disease. The correction of theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of controller are validated using numerical simulation performed in MATLAB/Simulink.

Rural household perception and adaptation strategies to climate change and variability: in the case of Libo-kemkem Woreda, Ethiopia

Studying Libo-kemkem Woreda households’ perceptions and responses to climate change and variability was the primary focus of this study. A cross-sectional and primary data collection method was used in this study to address its main objective. Based on stratified and straightforward random selection methods, 216 rural households were selected for the study. Through the household survey, data was collected on perceptions of climate change, variability, and adaptation methods. To analyze the collected data, beta regression models, F-tests, and chi-squared tests were employed. The results showed that only 3.2% of respondents did not recognize the occurrence of climate change or variability, which means that 96.8% of respondents are aware of the phenomenon. According to the sample of respondents, temperatures grew by 91.9% and rainfall decreased by 88.8%. A total of 96.2% of the respondents noted that rainfall distribution was uneven in the study area. A survey revealed that almost 96.7% of respondents said climate change negatively impacts agriculture, animal output, water quality, and epidemic disease outbreaks. Additionally, the model showed that, rather than respondents’ ages, factors like educational attainment, income earned on and off the farm, farm size, access to extension services, and weather information impacted climate change adaptation measures statistically significantly and favorably. Policymakers, woreda agricultural offices, and development staff need to take statistically significant factors into account when developing and implementing adaptation plans for climate change and variability.

Contract farming, animal epidemic disease outbreaks, and inclusive growth in rural China

ABSTRACT Contract farming (CF) is promoted as part of agricultural development policies in many countries. Few literature on CF has considered the animal epidemic risk, which significantly affects the total revenue and the re-distribution between the contract farmers and the enterprise. Using the ten-year nationwide household-level panel data, we investigate the Chinese poultry sector to analyse the inclusiveness of CF. We evaluate the impact of participating in CF on farmers’ income and asset endowments when animal epidemic diseases occur. The results confirm the insurance and discover the special re-distribution function of CF through adjusting product price. CF negatively affects large farmers’ poultry farming income while it could be mitigated during the animal epidemic disease outbreak. Meanwhile, participating in CF has a significant positive effect on small farmers’ assets when diseases occur. However, CF fails to be ‘inclusive’ in the presence of risks. The above positive effect is limited due to overall fewer participation opportunities available to small farmers. Policy implications and suggestions are derived to improve the inclusiveness of CF to small household farmers.

Not just escapism—Medicine-related fiction films as therapeutical and education tools amid pandemic

Background: During epidemic disease outbreaks, people’s daily lives are restricted by quarantine and social distancing measures that can affect not only their physical and mental health but also other aspects of their lives, including education. The quality of medical education has suffered amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with on-site classes and conferences canceled or postponed. To address the resultant gaps in learning and supplement the rigors of formal medical teaching, recent research has suggested the use of nonfictional films. However, research on the educational and therapeutic value of fictional films is currently lacking. Methods: This study explored fiction films featuring medical practices, diseases, and treatments. The researcher conducted multiple searches using the largest internet movie databases (Internet Movie Database (IMDb), the American Film Institute Catalog, and the British Film Institute’s Collections Search) and literature research focusing on studies related to the value of films as visual learning and educational tools and their therapeutic effects on viewers in times of pandemics. Results: The researcher chose a representative selection of 20 films from over 100 years of cinematic history to educate and intellectually challenge practitioners under lockdown and use as a therapeutic tool. This study identified many ways films could be a potent instrument for medical education and a wide range of educational and therapeutic possibilities for use during public health crises. Medical fiction offers a highly entertaining and effective way to expand and improve medical knowledge and practices while respecting pandemic restrictions. The findings expand our knowledge on the value of medical fiction as an educational and therapeutic tool. Conclusions: Fictional films can be an advantageous, effective, and entertaining medium for educating physicians and improving their medical skills and practices. When public health crises or other concerns necessitate «work from home» and socially distanced conditions, movies can augment and enhance high-level medical learning and offer new perspectives that might be obscured in times of trauma, making them especially valuable for those struggling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Analysis of Methods for Forecasting Epidemic Disease Outbreaks using Information from Social Media

Predicting the rise or fall of an epidemic or pandemic is an essential part of establishing control over it. Post-World War 1, when there was an outbreak of the “Black Plague” there weren’t any means to analyze and predict. Although today we are equipped with tools like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence which have certainly enabled us to prevent unnecessary loss of life. It helps prepare the health officials to build the infrastructure and interpret the intensity of preparedness regulation of resources. The aim of this survey is to analyze and shed some light on the various algorithms and methods such as - regression models, neural networks, ARIMA, etc. Before building any model, gathering and processing the data is also essential. Hence our paper also focuses on which social media platforms proved beneficial in comparison to all we found and then made fit to be incorporated into the models. While researching for this paper, we observed that every disease has a different transmission type that leads to an outbreak and is a key factor in constructing a model. The literature evaluation in this work is centered on various prediction algorithms and their strategies for extracting online data from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, all of which have drawn a lot of interest in early disease diagnosis for public health.

Mediating Role of Risk Perception and Environmental Quality on the Relationship Between Risk Knowledge and Traveler’s Intention in COVID-19

The recent outbreak of epidemic disease (COVID-19) has dramatically changed the socio-economic and environmental dynamics of the world. In particular, it affects human movement, travel intentions, and ambient air pollution amid rising stringency measures. Therefore, this study examines the influence of tourism knowledge, environmental vulnerability, and risk knowledge on travelers’ intentions in China’s tourism industry during COVID-19. To address the study objectives, an online survey questionnaire was created, through which a valid sample of 402 respondents was achieved. The direct and indirect relationship between variables was tested through structural equation modeling, the outcomes confirm that both tourism knowledge and risk knowledge in terms of COVID-19 significantly and negatively define the travelers’ intention toward tourism. Moreover, environmental vulnerability moderately affected tourism behavior and augmented with COVID-19 stringency disclosures. The mediating effect of risk perception and attitude towards the relationship between exogenous and endogenous constructs was tested. It shows a significant mediating impact of risk perception, environmental hazards and attitude towards risk on the nexus between tourism knowledge and travelers’ intention. The study offers valuable recommendations for policymakers to understand tourist intentions and climate vulnerability.

Measuring Objective Visual Quality of Real-Time Communication Systems in the Wild

During the outbreak of epidemic diseases, the importance of real-time communication (RTC) systems dramatically increases. People use RTC systems for communicating with others, presenting projects, attending online courses, and sharing videos. With different network conditions, applications, and scenarios, how to choose an appropriate system for high-quality RTC is an open question. To the best of our knowledge, there is no general and unified method to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the publicly available RTC systems. In this paper, we systematically evaluate several performances of RTC systems. Our method treats systems as a black-box, which can be easily adapted to other systems. Our method is also available for other video transmission systems, such as streaming and live broadcasting systems. According to our measurement method, we evaluate three web-based and three software-based RTC systems on two video conferencing (VC)-based and two screen sharing (SS)-based scenarios. We measure the received video quality (graphical quality and frame rate) at the receiver, the upload bitrate at the sender, and four usages of local resource. Furthermore, we propose a new metric to measure the ability of the system to handle insufficient bandwidth situations. Our proposed metric is the first one directly measure the ability of the rate adaptation mechanism for RTC systems. We expect the measurement method, the metric, and our findings can help system development in the future. Our detailed analysis reveals that (1) the software-based systems are more efficient than the web-based systems for bitrate usage; (2) the web-based systems are more tolerant to insufficient bandwidth conditions than the software-based systems; (3) the studied RTC systems currently are not designed for the scenario of sharing dynamic videos because of their low-frame-rate strategy, which limits the usage; and (4) decreasing graphical quality is more likely to be recognized than decreasing the frame rate. Frame rate adjustment for rate adaptation can be considered.

Delays in Epidemic Outbreak Control Cost Disproportionately Large Treatment Footprints to Offset.

Epidemic outbreak control often involves a spatially explicit treatment area (quarantine, inoculation, ring cull) that covers the outbreak area and adjacent regions where hosts are thought to be latently infected. Emphasis on space however neglects the influence of treatment timing on outbreak control. We conducted field and in silico experiments with wheat stripe rust (WSR), a long-distance dispersed plant disease, to understand interactions between treatment timing and area interact to suppress an outbreak. Full-factorial field experiments with three different ring culls (outbreak area only to a 25-fold increase in treatment area) at three different disease control timings (1.125, 1.25, and 1.5 latent periods after initial disease expression) indicated that earlier treatment timing had a conspicuously greater suppressive effect than the area treated. Disease spread computer simulations over a broad range of influential epidemic parameter values (R0, outbreak disease prevalence, epidemic duration) suggested that potentially unrealistically large increases in treatment area would be required to compensate for even small delays in treatment timing. Although disease surveillance programs are costly, our results suggest that treatments early in an epidemic disease outbreak require smaller areas to be effective, which may ultimately compensate for the upfront costs of proactive disease surveillance programs.

Activities of “flying” medical teams in the Arkhangelsk province (end of XIX century – 1920)

The article presents a historical example of solving the issue of providing public health care in hard-to-reach and sparsely populated territories in the context of a lack of medical personnel and the danger of outbreaks of epidemic diseases. The data concerns mobile medical units, specifically their management experience and recruiting in the Far North of the European part of Russia. Particular attention is paid to little-known facts relating to the last quarter of the XIX century and the First World War. In the Arkhangelsk province, the successful experience of “flying” medical teams, tested in the conditions of warfare, began to be applied in peacetime for temporary workers at the time of fishing and hunting on the remote deserted coasts of the northern seas. Due to the expansion of social infrastructure, the need for “medical units” disappeared, but was again requested in 1916-1920, when, in conditions of war and the mobilisation of medical personnel in the army, the civilian population of remote districts did not receive sufficient medical care, which created the danger of massive epidemics. A feature of this period was the widespread involvement of women doctors in the mobile medical units, even before the officially adopted resolution on their mobilisation in wartime. The activities of mobile medical units allowed reducing the risk of epidemics by localising individual cases and preventing them from spreading among the population, which in war conditions could lead to a quarantine of the Arkhangelsk port and paralyse economic and military relations with allies. Mobile anti-epidemic units became widespread in the following decades (especially during the years of the Civil and Great Patriotic / World War II). They were and continue to be of particular importance for assisting the population of remote northern territories, primarily leading a nomadic lifestyle. The article is based on analysing a large number of original archival sources.

Mental well-being during stages of COVID-19 lockdown among pregnant women and new mothers

BackgroundPregnancy and early motherhood are sensitive times where epidemic disease outbreaks can affect mental health negatively. Countries and health care systems handled the pandemic and lockdowns differently and knowledge about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental well-being of pregnant women and new mothers is limited and points in different directions.AimTo investigate symptoms of anxiety and depression in a population of pregnant women and new mothers in various stages of infection pressure and lockdown during the first 15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark.MethodsThe study population was nested an inception cohort of women recruited in their first trimester of pregnancy. Data about mental health of the woman were obtained in relation to pregnancy and child development (first trimester, 8 weeks postpartum and 5 months postpartum), and data were analysed cross-sectionally according to calendar time (periods defined by infection rate and lock-down during the COVID-19 pandemic).ResultsNo differences in reported levels of depressive symptoms between the six examined time periods of the pandemic were observed. Specifically, symptoms remained unchanged after the first lock-down. No major changes in anxiety symptoms were observed in relation to increased infection pressure or lockdowns, but a small increase was observed during the second lockdown in women 8 weeks postpartum.ConclusionNo clear change in mood among pregnant women was seen between during the stages of COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark.