Diseases have had more influence on us than we realize. They have taken a major role in making us humans and probably determine the way we run our lives. They emerged with us from our ancestral home in Africa, to spread to the rest of the planet. History is full of the great epidemics of plague, smallpox and anthrax, with the present catastrophe of HIV that is changing the demography of the world in a similar way to its predecessors. We survived because of our genetic variation and immune system and it will be this that will save us again. So fundamental has been the part that disease has played in the world that it has brought about change, just as much as has natural selection. Actually disease has been another force, sometimes acting with natural selection but often in opposition. It continues to have a far more profound effect on all of us than realized, selecting the course of the world just as much as nature has.

Written by internationally respected experts, Handbook of Human Helminthiasis provides information essential in the development of an integrated approach to the prevention, control and treatment of disease caused by endoparasitic helminths. The text is divided into sections dealing with the main groups of helminth infections and the diseases they induce. Each section addresses diagnostic techniques, epidemiology/distribution, pathogenesis, morbidity/pathology, treatment, prevention, and control. Emphasis is placed on methods for reducing morbidity, interrupting and reducing transmission, and techniques to prevent infection. This book is intended to be a practical manual for all involved in reducing the burden of disease and the economic costs of human helminthiasis.

Despite their similar political and economic structures, Brazil and the United States have contrasting relationships with the international community as well as different policy approaches to the prevention and treatment of epidemics. In this regard, an interesting empirical puzzle arises: how and why was Brazil able to outpace the United States in its health policy response to epidemics?The aim of this book is to introduce a new, comparative area of scholarly research, combining for the first time international relations and domestic institutional theory to examine the United States and Brazil's health policy systems and their respective responses to epidemics. Conclusions are drawn from an in-depth examination of the actions taken and policies made with regard to tuberculosis, polio and HIV/AIDS epidemics in the two countries. Finally, the questions of what emerging BRICS nations can learn from the case of Brazil and to what extent they can adopt Brazil's innovative institutional and policy response to epidemics is considered, with a look to the future of global health diplomacy.This is the first book of its kind to compare the United States and Brazil in such a way, as well as the first to consider what other emerging BRICS countries can learn from Brazil. This fascinating comparison is a must-read for health policy and medical practitioners, academic scholars and students, and the general public with an interest in the international and domestic political conditions leading to policy adoption and implementation.

The book addresses the issue of disease diffusion across the geographical span of India during the colonial period. Based on archival records, it analyses colonial economic policies and their implications for the spread of the disease across different regions of India as well as the role of the military in disease spread. It adds a new dimension to the understanding of the spread of TB in colonial India. The book also discusses the concept of the meaning of illness for different cohorts of TB patients. Based on narratives, it brings to readers the social and cultural dimensions that are responsible for the prevalence of the disease, despite having vaccination and medication available for more than half a century. The book will be beneficial to health and medical geographers and will bring new insights in historical geography as well as the history of medicine, by incorporating policy changes and their implication in disease spread. Sociologists and public health professionals will find narratives of patients interesting and useful for furthering their understanding.

This major reference work is the first comprehensive text to review in detail the data currently available on the epidemiology of the main rheumatic and musco-skeletal diseases. The problems of disease definition and criteria are considered with data on the occurrence of these diseases, both prevalence and incidence, and their variation with age, sex, geographical area, ethnic group, and trends over time. The results of epidemiological investigations,looking at both genetic and environmental risk factors, are considered and the impact of specific diseases of survival is also considered. Covering 15 disease areas from inflammatory joint disease and connective tissue disease to degenerative joint disease and non-articular conditions, such as low back pain and carpel tunnel syndrome, this is the only text available which offers full coverage of the subject with a truly international perspective.

This book provides an up-to-date review of fasciolosis, a disease caused by Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica, including its biology, transmission, epidemiology, host distribution, economic impact, and novel approaches for its diagnosis, treatment and prevention. It first offers a brief overview of the history of the disease, the genetic diversity of the parasite and its distribution, and the ecology of the vector snail, which belongs to the Lymnaeidae/Planorbidae family. It also examines the current strategies and novel approaches for controlling the parasite, diagnosing infections and vaccine development. Importantly, it highlights issues relating to the control of fasciolosis, including drug resistance, lack of effective diagnostics, and the parasite's long-term survival strategies based on regulation and modulation of the host immune system. Lastly, it discusses the novel control snail vectors using bait formulations, and synergetic and phototherapy treatment with chlorophyllin, which does not kill the vector.

All too often, the words "computer validation" strike terror into the hearts of those new to the process and may even cause those familiar with it to tremble. Validating Pharmaceutical Systems: Good Computer Practice in Life Science Manufacturing delineates GCP, GLP, and GMP regulatory requirements and provides guidance from seasoned practitioners on how to fulfill them. John Andrews and his team tackle the perceived complexities surrounding the validation of a wide variety of automated systems. Sprinkled with case studies and real-life examples, the book offers a step-by-step review of topics such as planning, design, auditing, risk management, and specification. The in-depth, by example coverage demystifies the challenges of manufacturing execution systems(MES), laboratory information management systems(LIMS), and network qualification. The first section examines the different levels of automated systems used throughout the drug development, manufacture, and delivery lifecycle, using the GAMP 4 lifecycle approach to their validation. The second section uncovers some real-life applications of GAMP 4 to different areas of the regulations such as GLP, GCP, GMP, and GDP. The book explores some of the latest thinking on computer validation and reflects changes that have occurred in the industry since the early days of validation. The contributors are a deliberate blend of those who have faced the problems of the 1990s and the Y2K controversies and those who have more recently arrived on the scene and made an impact on the perception of validation of automated systems across the field of GxP. They do more than show you how to do the right thing; they show you how to do the right thing in compliance with regulations.

The consequences of childhood obesity are serious and far reaching, with both physical and psychological components that add to its complexity. Childhood Obesity: Contemporary Issues provides an up-to-date account of the increase of obesity in children, its causes, and its prevention. The expert editorial panel has chosen contributors with considerable practical and research experience. They explore why childhood obesity is so difficult to prevent and treat. Focusing less on clinical issues and more on environmental factors, the book brings together social, psychological, biological, and socio-biological approaches to the experience and problem of obesity. Delineating the scope and impact of childhood obesity, the book provides a unique view of the obese child. It examines the link between food intake and physical activity, which are the immediate determinants of energy balance, and discusses how to measure and assess them. The World Health Organization describes obesity as one of today's most blatantly visible - yet most neglected - public health problems. This book highlights obesity in children and discusses the need to develop multifactorial and multi-agency strategic plans to contain this epidemic.

Written in an engaging and jargon-free style by a team of international and interdisciplinary experts, Modern Environments and Human Health demonstrates by example how methods, theoretical approaches, and data from a wide range of disciplines can be used to resolve longstanding questions about the second epidemiological transition. The first book to address the subject from a multi-regional, comparative, and interdisciplinary perspective, Modern Environments and Human Health is a valuable resource for students and academics in biological anthropology, economics, history, public health, demography, and epidemiology.

The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) is one of the largest-scale research collaborations in global health, distilling a wide range of health information to provide estimates and projections for more than 350 diseases, injuries, and risk factors in 195 countries. Its results are a critical tool informing researchers, policy-makers, and others working to promote health around the globe. A study like the GBD is, of course, extremely complex from an empirical perspective. But it also raises a large number of complex ethical and philosophical questions that have been explored in a series of collaborations over the past twenty years among epidemiologists, philosophers, economists, and policy scholars. The essays in this volume address issues of current and urgent concern to the GBD and other epidemiological studies, including rival understandings of causation, the aggregation of complex health data, temporal discounting, age-weighting, and the valuation of health states. The volume concludes with a set of chapters discussing how epidemiological data should and should not be used. Better appreciating the philosophical dimensions of a study like the GBD can make possible a more sophisticated interpretation of its results, and it can improve epidemiological studies in the future, so that they are better suited to produce results that can help us to improve global health.

What is the prevalence of insomnia in a particular age group, in men and women, or in Caucasians and African Americans? What is the average total sleep time among normal sleepers among these groups? How does the sleep of Caucasians and African Americans differ? These are just some of the questions addressed in "The Epidemiology of Sleep."
This new book presents the most detailed and comprehensive archive of normal and abnormal sleep patterns. Based on a landmark study supported by the National Institute on Aging, 772 subjects from a host of populations including men, women, and various age and ethnic groups, prepared detailed sleep diaries for a two-week period. The use of these sleep diaries yielded a plethora of data on such characteristics as normal sleep patterns, various forms of insomnia, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and daytime sleepiness differentiated by age, sex, and ethnicity. The results generated by these data, charted in the book's numerous tables and graphs, provide a critical methodological advance in the sleep literature.
"The Epidemiology of Sleep" opens with an overview of the rationale and unique characteristics of the study. This is followed by a comprehensive review of the existing epidemiological literature on sleep. Chapter three presents a detailed description of the methods used in the survey followed by meticulous information on the epidemiology of normal and insomnia sleep, that is unparalleled in the literature. Chapter six provides an archive of sleep patterns among African Americans. The book concludes with a discussion and interpretation of the most interesting findings.
This insightful study, coupled with the comprehensive review of the existing literature on the epidemiology of sleep, make this volume an invaluable resource for sleep researchers, clinicians, health and clinical psychologists, gerontologists, epidemiologists, and advanced students.

This book provides a complete and current overview of the correlation between ocean conditions and human health, publishing comprehensively for the first time on the direct interactions among oceanography, marine biology and impacts on human health. Specifically the text addresses how changing ocean conditions result in health impacts and disruptions, with a focus on cases in the USA. The changing ocean conditions that are discussed include diminishing marine biodiversity, climactic changes such as intensified weather events, shifting sea currents and increasing sea temperature. The book addresses the resulting health issues brought about by these various ocean conditions, such as emerging infectious diseases, starvation and poisoning among impacted communities, toxic algae blooms, threatened ecosystems, and other future implications. The text was developed in conjunction with scientists from Brown University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Riverside and Ochsner Health, all located in areas deeply impacted by the changing Oceans. The book will be of interest to marine research scientists, health care professionals, students, and general enthusiasts of oceanography and health.

Mosquitoes are significant vectors that transmit various pathogens to humans and other mammals. Mosquitoes seem to be omnipresent and easily breed in climates favourable to them. Life cycle of the Aedes species of mosquitoes is similar to others of its genera. This book focuses on Aedes mosquitoes that are responsible for many dreadful diseases and discusses every stage in the life cycle of the species. The contributing authors of this book have extensive teaching and research experience in the field of detection of viruses of Dengue, Chikungunya, yellow fever and West Nile. One of the contributing authors, Prof. Vinod Joshi, has researched on Dengue viruses for 17 years. The book provides a detailed account of the distribution of Aedes mosquitoes, their role as a vector and their control through various methods. Currently, there has been increased interest among researchers to mitigate the threat caused by Aedes mosquitoes and substantial investigation is being done on the mosquito's history, in characterizing present circumstances and to collaborate future efforts.

The alarm sounded by Canada's recently confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has reaffirmed the exigency of establishing improved safeguards and more aggressive surveillance protocols in North America and around the world. Research converging on the probable causative agent-prion proteins-calls for intensive assessment of the headway gained in tracing prions, testing for transmissible neurodegenerative diseases, and developing methods for cornering the epidemic. Administered by an illustrious panel of 36 international contributors, this timely book marshals techniques for prion protein assay and diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).

This book describes some of the key epidemiological principles, scientific approaches and quality assurance frameworks required to design and conduct biobank studies in various settings. Using examples from contemporary biobanks, the book addresses the design features and practical procedures needed in order to launch and manage biobank studies, including consent and regulatory approval, the organisation of field work, management of data and biological samples, follow-up and verification of disease outcomes, development of IT systems for data collection, quality assurance and study management. Over the last two decades, several large biobank studies have been initiated in different populations, intended to greatly enhance the development of precision medicine. Contemporary biobank studies are extremely large and complex, and involve several decades of follow-up. Such studies pose major challenges in terms of ensuring rapid recruitment, obtaining high-quality data, minimising loss to follow-up, reliably classifying disease outcomes, and optimising the use of the biological samples collected. In this regard, the key to success lies not in planning the perfect study, but in planning the most appropriate, reliable, sustainable and future-proof study given the practical constraints of available resources, time and capacity. The authors of this handbook are epidemiologists, clinicians, software engineers, and laboratory and data scientists with extensive experience in conducting large biobank studies. The eight chapters can be read separately or together, and provide readers with essential information on how to design, implement and manage these studies. The state-of-the-art, innovative and scalable approaches and methodologies presented here are intended to stimulate the development of further population-based and hospital-based biobank studies in diverse populations.

Over the past decade, there have been many international calls to strengthen and support/sustain research capacity in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This capacity is considered an essential foundation for cost-effective healthcare systems. While there have been long-standing investments by many countries and research funding organisations in the training of individuals for this purpose, in many LMICs research capacity remains fragmented, uneven and fragile. There is growing recognition that a more systems-oriented approach to research capacity-building is required. Nonetheless, there are considerable gaps in the evidence for approaches to capacity-building that are effective and sustainable. This book addresses these gaps, capturing what was learned from teams working on The Global Health Research Initiative. This book brings together the experiences of research capacity-building teams co-led by Canadians and LMIC researchers in several regions of the world, including Jamaica, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Uganda.

This volume collects essays by the late bioethicist John D. Arras, best known for his many contributions to the methodology of bioethics. Always open-minded, Arras did not favor a single theory or view of method in bioethics, eschewing labels such as "casuist" or "pragmatist." He was conversant with the main philosophical methods that have dominated bioethics since the field's origin, including principlism, Gert's common morality, the "new casuistry", pragmatism, and others. Rather than defending any particular theory or method, though, Arras rigorously investigated those methods - and how they both expand and limit our field of vision. He sought, in the tradition of Kierkegaard, to make life "harder" for bioethics, by uncovering challenges to the field's analytical methods. His favorite mode of exploration and expression was the thoughtful essay. The essays collected here reveal him thinking through new problems and new possibilities, and they invariably yield fresh and valuable insights.

An introduction to classical biostatistical methods in epidemiology

Biostatistical Methods in Epidemiology provides an introduction to a wide range of methods used to analyze epidemiologic data, with a focus on nonregression techniques. The text includes an extensive discussion of measurement issues in epidemiology, especially confounding. Maximum likelihood, Mantel-Haenszel, and weighted least squares methods are presented for the analysis of closed cohort and case-control data. Kaplan-Meier and Poisson methods are described for the analysis of censored survival data. A justification for using odds ratio methods in case-control studies is provided. Standardization of rates is discussed and the construction of ordinary, multiple decrement and cause-deleted life tables is outlined. Sample size formulas are given for a range of epidemiologic study designs. The text ends with a brief overview of logistic and Cox regression. Other highlights include:

• Many worked examples based on actual data
• Discussion of exact methods
• Recommendations for preferred methods
• Extensive appendices and references

Biostatistical Methods in Epidemiology provides an excellent introduction to the subject for students, while also serving as a comprehensive reference for epidemiologists and other health professionals.

For more information, visit www.wiley.com/mathematics

This book introduces flood inundation area and flood risks assessment based on a comprehensive monitoring system using remote sensing and geographic information system technologies. Taking the 2011 flood disaster of Ayutthaya in Thailand as an example, it presents a flood intrusion zone identification method based on remote sensing technology, spatial information technology and geographic information system for flood disaster monitoring and early warning system. It introduces the study area and data, vegetation index, improved support vector machine and flood intrusion zone identification method. It also analyzes the flood remote sensing parameters and waterborne diseases, method of risk assessment of waterborne disease outbreak, waterborne disease outbreak risk monitoring based on backpropagation neural network and its expert system. It not only promotes a new interdisciplinary approach both in public health and space information technology, but also greatly supports decision makers in disaster reduction.

The get-it-over-with-quickly approach to statistics has been encouraged - and often necessitated - by the short time allotted to it in most curriculums. If included at all, statistics is presented briefly, as a task to be endured mainly because pertinent questions may appear in subsequent examinations for licensure or other certifications. However, in later professional activities, clinicians and biomedical researchers will constantly be confronted with reports containing statistical expressions and analyses.

Not just a set of cookbook recipes, Principles of Medical Statistics is designed to get you thinking about data and statistical procedures. It covers many new statistical methods and approaches like box plots, stem and leaf plots, concepts of stability, the bootstrap, and the jackknife methods of resampling. The book is arranged in a logical sequence that advances from simple to more elaborate results. The text describes all the conventional statistical procedures, and offers reasonably rigorous accounts of many of their mathematical justifications. Although the conventional mathematical principles are given a respectful account, the book provides a distinctly clinical orientation with examples and teaching exercises drawn from real world medical phenomena.

Statistical procedures are an integral part of the basic background needed by biomedical researchers, students, and clinicians. Containing much more than most elementary texts, Principles of Medical Statistics fills the gap often found in the current curriculum. It repairs the imbalance that gives so little attention to the role of statistics as a prime component of basic biomedical education.

This widely used text provides a clear and critical summary of research approaches to the epidemiological study of workplace hazards. It describes the historical development of occupational epidemiology, methods for characterizing occupational exposures, and techniques for designing and implementing epidemiologic studies in this area. The relative strengths and limitations of various study designs for investigating specific health outcomes are emphasized. Also included are more advanced discussions of statistical analysis, exposure and dose modeling, and subsequent applications of data derived from epidemiologic research, as in meta-analysis, pooled analysis, and statistical analysis, exposure and dose modeling, and risk assessment. Since the first edition was published 15 years ago, there have been numerous advances in epidemiologic methods to accommodate a broadened scope of investigations of occupational exposures and associated adverse health outcomes. Thus, in this Second Edition the authors have updated their discussions of methodology to include such topics as case-cohort and case-crossover designs and statistical analysis of repeated measures data, and have expanded the examples they use throughout the book to demonstrate the applications of these methods to a wide range of acute and chronic health outcomes. They have also added a new chapter on occupational health sureillance. Their text is unique for its strong emphasis on the definition and assessment of exposures, the application of quantitative exposure data to epidemiologic models, and the recognition that improvements in workplace risk identification and quantification will come from careful integration of theseapproaches. This fine volume will serve both as a textbook for courses on occupational epidemiology and as a practical handbook of the design, implementation, and evaluation of research in this field.

This book includes research articles and expository papers on the applications of artificial intelligence and big data analytics to battle the pandemic. In the context of COVID-19, this book focuses on how big data analytic and artificial intelligence help fight COVID-19. The book is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the forecasting and visualization of the COVID-19 data. The second part describes applications of artificial intelligence in the COVID-19 diagnosis of chest X-Ray imaging. The third part discusses the insights of artificial intelligence to stop spread of COVID-19, while the last part presents deep learning and big data analytics which help fight the COVID-19.

Historians have long recognized epidemics to be a significant, though sometimes hidden, factor in the fortunes of societies and civilizations. The study of epidemics heightens our understanding of relationships between economic systems and living conditions. It illuminates the ideologies and religious beliefs of the affected community and illustrates the efforts and inadequacies of public health systems. This investigation of the history of epidemics in various parts of Peru during the twentieth century opens up a new field for Latin American studies to include health and disease. These are important areas of the past that enable us to understand better the living conditions of people, the role of state authority and the dynamics of social movement. Marcos Cueto examines five series of epidemics: the bubonic plague of 1903-1930; the fever epidemic of 1919-1922; the typhus and small pox epidemics in the Andes; attempts to control and eradicate malaria, and the cholera epidemics of 1991. In each case he studies the biological and ecological factors that caused the outbreak, and the techniques and policies applied to fight it, together with the response of the affected society. The experience of epidemics in Peru has been cyclical. Poverty breeds disease which in turn results in further poverty. One of the aims of this study is to highlight areas of success and failure in the fight against epidemics in the hope that such awareness may help break this vicious circle.

Review of the First Edition: The authors strive to reduce theory to a minimum, which makes it a self-learning text that is comprehensible for biologists, physicians, etc. who lack an advanced mathematics background. Unlike in many other textbooks, R is not introduced with meaningless toy examples; instead the reader is taken by the hand and shown around some analyses, graphics, and simulations directly relating to meta-analysis... A useful hands-on guide for practitioners who want to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of meta-analysis and get started without having to plough through theorems and proofs. -Journal of Applied Statistics Statistical Meta-Analysis with R and Stata, Second Edition provides a thorough presentation of statistical meta-analyses (MA) with step-by-step implementations using R/Stata. The authors develop analysis step by step using appropriate R/Stata functions, which enables readers to gain an understanding of meta-analysis methods and R/Stata implementation so that they can use these two popular software packages to analyze their own meta-data. Each chapter gives examples of real studies compiled from the literature. After presenting the data and necessary background for understanding the applications, various methods for analyzing meta-data are introduced. The authors then develop analysis code using the appropriate R/Stata packages and functions. What's New in the Second Edition: Adds Stata programs along with the R programs for meta-analysis Updates all the statistical meta-analyses with R/Stata programs Covers fixed-effects and random-effects MA, meta-regression, MA with rare-event, and MA-IPD vs MA-SS Adds five new chapters on multivariate MA, publication bias, missing data in MA, MA in evaluating diagnostic accuracy, and network MA Suitable as a graduate-level text for a meta-data analysis course, the book is also a valuable reference for practitioners and biostatisticians (even those with little or no experience in using R or Stata) in public health, medical research, governmental agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry.