An analysis of deaths in Tuliszków parish caused by a cholera epidemic in 1831

BACKGROUND

Information is presented about cholera as an infectious disease and an epidemic in Polish lands and in Europe in 1831 based on old and modern sources.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the difference in the percentages of deaths from cholera depending on age, in the Tuliszków parish during the cholera epidemic in 1831.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A query was carried out in the archives. Information on deaths between 1829 and 1839 was obtained from the parish registry files. The following factors were taken into account: the cause of death, the age of the deceased and the place of residence. For individual age groups, the numbers of people who died of cholera in 1831 and those who died from other causes in the control year 1835 were compared by the Fisher test. The GBL and PubMed database was searched using the keywords: cholera, cholera epidemic, deaths, Tuliszków, the year 1831, Holy Spirit Hospital, Konin.

RESULTS

An outbreak of cholera in Tuliszków parish in 1831 began around the 8th of August and lasted until about the 10th of October. 81 people died of cholera: 74 people in Tuliszków and 7 people in Sarbicko. The number of deaths in infants and children up to 5 years of age was in fact significantly lower than in other age groups (p = 0.0052). The percentage of deaths from cholera compared to deaths from other causes among infants and children under 5 years of age decreased from 52.46% to 28.4%. In the age group of 20 to 40 years old it increased from 13.11% to 23.46% and in the age group over 55 years from 9.84% to 19.75%.

CONCLUSIONS

In Tuliszków parish in 1831, the number of deaths of infants and children under 5 years of age caused by cholera was indeed significantly lower than in other age groups (p = 0.0052).

Epidemics from the Perspective of Professional Nursing: Beyond Germs, Public Health, and Pot Banging

In his classic article, Charles Rosenberg brilliantly sets up epidemics as social phenomena of three interrelated stages-progressive revelation, develop ment of an explanatory framework to manage randomness, and negotiation of public response. This framework, although written almost thirty years ago, still resonates. Even as we have experienced different kinds of infectious epidemics over the last century (Ebola, AIDS), his stages still help us understand how society constructs the meaning of epidemics and manages policies, structures, and postepidemic explanations. Whether Rosenberg's three stages actually help frame the meaning of an epidemic for individual patients and professional care providers, for whom the epidemic is local and personal, is the subject of this essay, with an emphasis on the following question: What is the meaning of an epidemic from a nursing perspective?

Epidemics And Disability

This essay argues that considering disability and disability history needs to be part of any history of epidemics. Recent scholarship has shown the many intersections of disability history and history of medicine. This essay argues that disability plays many roles in an epidemic from establishing pre-existing conditions, to affecting the acute phase of the disease, to creating lingering disabilities in the long aftermath. Histories of epidemics that ignore the many ways in which disability affects the experience of an epidemic are incomplete.

Introduction: Reimagining Epidemics

Over the past year, historians of medicine have found our discipline invested with a new sense of relevance. In trying to make sense of epidemics past and present, many of us have been substantially influenced by Charles Rosenberg's 1989 Daedalus essay, "What Is an Epidemic? AIDS in Historical Perspective." Writing in the middle of another unfolding global pandemic, Rosenberg suggested that all epidemics possessed similar forms of social choreography, and that applying a narrative framework could help to understand their sequence, structure, and social impact. This issue of the Bulletin offers contributions from thirteen scholars working in various geographic, chronological, and thematic areas that engage with Rosenberg's fundamental historical question about what defines an epidemic, although the question takes on different forms, and different forms of urgency, in each of their works.

Spectacles of Difference: The Racial Scripting of Epidemic Disparities

This essay explores how epidemics in the past and present give rise to distinctive, recurring racial scripts about bodies and identities, with sweeping racial effects beyond the Black experience. Using examples from cholera, influenza, tuberculosis, AIDS, and COVID-19, the essay provides a dramaturgical analysis of race and epidemics in four acts, moving from Act I, racial revelation; to Act II, the staging of bodies and places; to Act III, where race and disease is made into spectacle; and finally, Act IV, in which racial boundaries are fixed, repaired, or made anew in the response to the racial dynamics revealed by epidemics. Focusing primarily on North America but touching on global racial narratives, the essay concludes with reflections on the writers and producers of these racialized dramas, and a discussion of why these racialized repertoires have endured.

Revisiting "What Is an Epidemic?" in the Time of COVID-19: Lessons from the History of Latin American Public Health

This essay considers what thirty years of scholarship on the history of epidemics in Latin America and the larger hemisphere can bring to a current reading of Charles Rosenberg's influential 1989 essay, "What Is an Epidemic? AIDS in Historical Perspective." It advocates that taking a broader geographical view is valuable to understanding better the arc of an epidemic in society. In addition, it proposes that, to see the ways in which the United States is experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to place the United States alongside the experiences of other countries of the Americas rather than making comparisons to Europe.

[Protector Saints Against Plague Epidemics - Analysis of the Examples from the Sacral Patrimonies of the Cites of Rijeka and Osijek]

Plague epidemics have remained in the collective consciousness until nowadays remembered as the deadliest. Therefore, it is not surprising that the answers to them throughout history have been not only medical but also religious. The previously mentioned will be analyzed in this paper through the cults of the protector saints against the plague epidemics that have developed in two Croatian cities of comparable size, Rijeka and Osijek, but with the diametrically opposed geographical positions and, accordingly, quite different historical developments. On the one hand, a more detailed overview of the development of the cults of various saints present in the mentioned cities will be presented. On the other hand, based on their presentation in the sacral heritage of these cities, the broader context of the time and space in which they have developed will be lightened. Particular attention will be paid to their medical connotations.

[HOW HEALTH SERVICES IN ISRAEL COPED WITH THE POLIO EPIDEMIC OF THE 1950'S]

Today, the introduction of a new medicine or vaccine or the clinical trial of some new potion requires the approval of a variety of bodies in accordance with Helsinki Agreement rules, National Health Laws and Health Ministry regulations. The creation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1946 added another essential layer to the firm base of principles governing the conduct of clinical trials that exist today. Its main contribution was to create a new reality following The Second World War and the subsequent Nuremberg Trials. The Declaration of Helsinki was only adopted eighteen years later, in 1964. In its first years of independence the infant State of Israel was attacked by a serious outbreak of polio which claimed many victims - mostly children and youngsters. Infantile paralysis - poliomyelitis (polio) was then considered as being untreatable. The disease affected 0.1% of the population of Israel. In 1950, out of a total population of 1.2 million, 1,500 were infected by polio. The epidemic struck over three successive seasons and affected more than 3,000 victims. The mortality rate stood at 10%. Experts, charlatans and fame seekers all presented their inventions to the country - creams, medicines and research projects all designed to bring relief to the sick children. Against all these stood the newly formed Ministry of Health, determined to bring order to the chaos. The only trial conducted by the Health Ministry was unsuccessful, but it was accompanied by the most stringent controls that would not have shamed even today's researchers. The clinical trials of Zibaline were conducted in the early 60's, after the polio vaccine had been introduced and the epidemic had passed. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of medical ethics, norms and morals on the way that medical practice dealt with the epidemic at a time when there were no laws or rules.

The epidemiological signature of influenza B virus and its B/Victoria and B/Yamagata lineages in the 21st century

We describe the epidemiological characteristics, pattern of circulation, and geographical distribution of influenza B viruses and its lineages using data from the Global Influenza B Study. We included over 1.8 million influenza cases occurred in thirty-one countries during 2000–2018. We calculated the proportion of cases caused by influenza B and its lineages; determined the timing of influenza A and B epidemics; compared the age distribution of B/Victoria and B/Yamagata cases; and evaluated the frequency of lineage-level mismatch for the trivalent vaccine. The median proportion of influenza cases caused by influenza B virus was 23.4%, with a tendency (borderline statistical significance, p = 0.060) to be higher in tropical vs. temperate countries. Influenza B was the dominant virus type in about one every seven seasons. In temperate countries, influenza B epidemics occurred on average three weeks later than influenza A epidemics; no consistent pattern emerged in the tropics. The two B lineages caused a comparable proportion of influenza B cases globally, however the B/Yamagata was more frequent in temperate countries, and the B/Victoria in the tropics (p = 0.048). B/Yamagata patients were significantly older than B/Victoria patients in almost all countries. A lineage-level vaccine mismatch was observed in over 40% of seasons in temperate countries and in 30% of seasons in the tropics. The type B virus caused a substantial proportion of influenza infections globally in the 21^st century, and its two virus lineages differed in terms of age and geographical distribution of patients. These findings will help inform health policy decisions aiming to reduce disease burden associated with seasonal influenza.

Standing on the shoulders of giants: two centuries of struggle against meningococcal disease

Meningococcal disease was first clinically characterised by Gaspard Vieusseux in 1805, and its causative agent was identified by Anton Weichselbaum in 1887, who named it Diplococcus intracellularis menigitidis. From the beginning, the disease was dreaded because of its epidemic nature, predilection for previously healthy children and adolescents, and high mortality. In the last decade of the 19th century, the concept of serum therapy for toxin-related bacterial diseases was identified. This concept was applied to meningococcal disease therapy, in an independent way, by Wilhelm Kolle, August von Wasserman, and Georg Jochmann in Germany, and Simon Flexner in the USA, resulting in the first successful approach for the treatment of meningococcal disease. During the first three decades of the 20th century, serum therapy was the standard treatment for meningococcal disease. With the advent of sulphamides first and then antibiotics, serum therapy was abandoned. The great challenges that infectious diseases medicine is facing and the awaiting menaces in the future in terms of increasing antibiotic resistance, emergence of new pathogens, and re-emergence of old ones without effective therapy, make passive immunotherapy a promising tool. Acknowledging the achievements of our predecessors might teach us some lessons to bring light to our future.

The epidemic characteristics and spatial autocorrelation analysis of hand, foot and mouth disease from 2010 to 2015 in Shantou, Guangdong, China

BACKGROUND

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is the highest incidence of infectious diseases in China. Shantou is one of the most infected cities. Therefore, it is necessary for us to understand the epidemic characteristics and distribution trend of HFMD in Shantou. The purpose of this study is to investigate the spatial epidemiological characteristics of HFMD and analyse its spatial autocorrelation.

METHOD

We collated and summarised the data of HFMD in Shantou from 2010 to 2015. SaTScan software and Moran's I were used to analyse the spatial correlation of HFMD, and the results were presented in ArcMap.

RESULTS

The distribution of HFMD in Shantou was of a seasonal trend, mainly concentrating during May and June. Children under 5-years-old were the main group of cases of HFMD, accounting for 92.46%. The proportion of infected children, especially those aged zero to 1, was the largest in each year, accounting for 45.62%, meaning that smaller children were more susceptible to HFMD. The number of male patients with HFMD was greater than that of females (1.78:1, male: female). With regard to the potential impact of patients' living style on the incidence rate of HFMD, this study revealed that scattered children were the dominant infected population, accounting for as much 84.49% of cases. The incidence of HFMD was unevenly distributed among streets. The incidence interval of streets was in a range of 13.76/100,000 to 1135.19/100,000. Spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that there was no global spatial correlation in Shantou, except in 2013. The results of local spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that H-H correlation existed in the high incidence local area of Shantou.

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of HFMD across the various streets in Shantou not only varied widely but also represented local autocorrelation. Attention, as well as prevention and control measures, should be focused on those high-incidence areas, such as the Queshi street, Zhuchi street and Xinjin street.

Childhood health shocks, comparative advantage, and long-term outcomes: Evidence from the last Danish polio epidemic

This paper examines the long-term effects of childhood disability on individuals' educational and occupational choices, late-career labor market participation, and mortality. We merge medical records on children hospitalized with poliomyelitis during the 1952 Danish epidemic to census and administrative data, and exploit quasi-random variation in paralysis incidence in this population. While childhood disability increases the likelihood of early retirement and disability pension receipt at age 50, paralytic polio survivors are more likely to obtain a university degree and to go on to work in white-collar and computer-demanding jobs than their non-paralytic counterparts. Our results are consistent with individuals making educational and occupational choices that reflect a shift in the comparative advantage of cognitive versus physical skills. We also find that paralytic polio patients from low socioeconomic status backgrounds are more likely to die prematurely than their non-paralytic counterparts, whereas there is no effect on mortality among polio survivors from more advantaged backgrounds.

Epidemiological state-building in interwar Poland: discourses and paper technologies

ArgumentThe paper argues that epidemic surveillance and state-building were closely interconnected in interwar Poland. Starting from the paper technology of weekly epidemiological reporting it discusses how the reporting scheme of Polish epidemics came into being in the context of a typhus epidemic in 1919-20. It then shows how the statistics regarding nation-wide epidemics was put into practice. It is only when we take into account these practices that we can understand the epidemiological order the statistics produced. The preprinted weekly report form registered Jews and Christians separately. Yet, the imagined national epidemiological space that emerged from it hardly took notice of this separation. Rather, the category that differentiated Polish epidemiological space in medical discourse was the capacity of contributing to the state-making practices of epidemic surveillance. This category divided Poland into two regions: a civilized and modern western region and a backward and peripheral eastern region.

Cotton Mather's medicine, with particular reference to measles

While the vocation of Cotton Mather (1663-1728) was his ministry in Boston, he made important contributions to medicine, most famously in helping to introduce variolation to New England in 1721-22 and in writing The Angel of Bethesda (1724), the first medical treatise produced in Colonial North America. This article, however, focuses on an earlier initiative, Mather's efforts to quell the epidemic of measles that struck Boston in 1713, killing among many others his wife and three children. Historians have devoted little attention to this episode or to measles in general, even though the disease was highly mortal during the colonial period. To help victims, Mather published a 'letter' on treating measles. Such a specific discussion of treatment would have been rare in Europe and it was unprecedented in America. The therapy that Mather proposed not only reflected popular medicine but also incorporated newer practices, notably those associated with Thomas Sydenham. In contrast to heroic therapies for measles, which were often dangerous but became more popular across the eighteenth century, Mather's recommendations were moderate.

[Encephalitis lethargica. The epidemic at the dawn of neurology]

Lethargic encephalitis is a neurological illness that shows a wide range of symptoms and signs, including neurological and psychiatric spectrum. It presented in an epidemic way, following influaenza relapses. The last relapse started at the beginning of 20th century and it was deeply described by Constantin von Economo. The illness described first in Europe and North America, was described in many others countries including Chile. There were beautiful descriptions by Chilean physicians like Lea-Plaza, Tello, Iturra and Cienfuegos. Their works showed the complexity of the illness like European physicians did too. The etiology is still unknown; however growing evidence about autoinmune aetiology is gaining force with the use of actual medical technology. In this work, we show encephalitis lethargica, focusing in clinical picture, the beauty of medical descriptions that physicians did at this date.

[Prophylactic representations, discourses and practices during the cholera epidemic (1886-1887, Mendoza, Argentina)]

The article takes a look into the disciplinary projects approved by the authorities in the province of Mendoza (Argentina) during the cholera epidemic that took place during the summer of 1886-1887. Although the projects were intended to ameliorate the sanitary conditions of the whole of the population, these were focused and applied more intensively on the underprivileged sectors and their areas of inhabitance. This follows the ideas and representations created by the State regarding the illness and its death during this period.

Edward Ballard and the Practice of Epidemiology in the 19th-Century United Kingdom

This article recovers the history of Victorian epidemiology through the career of British physician Edward Ballard (1820-1897). Ballard's career provides a useful window into the practices of epidemiology in the 19th century because he held notable public health posts as medical officer of health for Islington and inspector at the Medical Department of the Local Government Board. By the time of his death, in 1897, he typified the transition toward professional epidemiology. In exploring some of the most important environmental and health-related problems in preventive medicine in the 19th century, Ballard was part of a group of influential epidemiologists who studied infectious disease. In particular, he was noted for his research into typhoid fever and industrial health. Yet Ballard's career has largely been forgotten. In this article, I explore Ballard's work as a window into the everyday practices of Victorian epidemiology and suggest that the process of professionalizing epidemiology in the 20th century was about forgetting epidemiology's Victorian past as much as it was about championing it.

Changing of the Genomic Pattern of Salmonella Enteritidis Strains Isolated in Brazil Over a 48 year-period revealed by Whole Genome SNP Analyses

Salmonella Enteritidis became the main serovar isolated from gastroenteritis cases in Brazil after the 90's. In this study we used whole genome sequence analysis to determine the phylogenetic relationships among a collection of strains isolated in Brazil to identify possible genomic differences between the strains isolated in the pre and post-epidemic period. Also, we compared our data from strains isolated in Brazil to strains available in the public domain from other South American countries. Illumina technology was used to sequence the genome of 256 Salmonella Enteritidis strains isolated over a 48 year-period in Brazil, comprising the pre- and post-epidemic period. Phylogenetic analyses revealed distinct lineages for strains isolated before and after 1994. Moreover, the phage region SE20 that may be related to the emergence of Salmonella Enteritidis worldwide was present only in strains of the post-epidemic cluster. In conclusion, our results showed that the genomic profile of Salmonella Enteritidis strains isolated in Brazil shifted after 1994, replaced by a global epidemic group of strains. It may be hypothesized that the presence of the prophage SE20 might have conferred to these strains a better ability to colonize chicken and consequently to infect and cause disease in humans, which might better explain the increase in the number of S. Enteritidis cases in Brazil and other South American countries. However, to verify this hypothesis further studies are needed.