A deeply reported, insightful, and literary account of humankind’s battles with epidemic disease, and their outsized role in deepening inequality along racial, ethnic, class, and gender lines—in the vein of Medical Apartheid and Killing the Black Body.

Epidemic diseases enter the world by chance, but they become catastrophic by human design.

With clear-eyed research and lush prose, A History of the World in Six Plagues shows that throughout history, outbreaks of disease have been exacerbated by and gone on to further expand the racial, economic, and sociopolitical divides we allow to fester in times of good health.

Princeton-trained historian Edna Bonhomme’s examination of humanity’s disastrous treatment of pandemic disease takes us across place and time from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania, and from plantation-era America to our modern COVID-19-scarred world to unravel shocking truths about the patterns of discrimination in the face of disease. Based on in-depth research and cultural analysis, Bonhomme explores Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19 amidst the backdrop of unequal public policy. But much more than a remarkable history, A History of the World in Six Plaguesis also a rising call for change.

In the past, disease pattern mapping depended on census tracts based on political units, such as states and counties. However, with the advent of geographic information systems (GIS), researchers can now achieve a new level of precision and flexibility in geographic locating. This emerging technology allows the mapping of many different kinds of geographies, including disease rates in relation to pollution sources. Geocoding Health Data presents a state-of-the-art discussion on the current technical and administrative developments in geographic information science. In particular, it discusses how geocoded residential addresses can be used to examine the spatial patterns of cancer incidence, staging, survival, and mortality. The book begins with an introduction of various codes and their uses, including census geographic, health area, and street level codes. It goes on to describe the specific application of geocodes to cancer, detailing methods, materials, and technical issues. The text illustrates how to compile data maps for analysis and addresses issues, such as mismatch correction and data quality. It describes the current state of geocoding practices and discusses the use of individually geocoded cancer incidences in spatial epidemiology, distance estimation and spatial accessibilities, and tips for handling non-geocoded cases. Special consideration is given to privacy and confidentiality issues by focusing on disclosure limitation methods. With recent disease outbreaks and escalating concerns about bioterrorism, interest in the application of GIS to individual data is growing. The fundamental concepts presented by this book are of great value to anyone trying to understand thecauses, prevention, and control of cancer as well as a variety of other diseases.

"The OHE Compendium of Health Statistics" is the one-stop statistical source specially designed for easy use by anyone interested in the UK health care sector and the NHS. It contains over 300 simple, easy-to-read tables and charts and provides a wide range of information on UK health and healthcare, demography, expenditure and major illness in a single volume. It also includes long time series and comparisons with other economically developed nations. The UK data are broken down into England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and contain annual figures from as far back as 1949 (the first full year of the NHS). An on-line version of the "OHE Compendium" is also available.

The mapping of the human genome means it is now feasible to conduct large genome-wide linkage and association studies for complex behaviors and diseases. This means that the focus of research is now to identify the genes responsible for such conditions. Identifying these genes will help readers to understand why some people are prone to mental and physical disease, improve early diagnosis, and eventually could lead to treatments.Statistical Genetics is an advanced textbook focusing on conducting genetic linkage and association analysis in the post-genomic era. Starting with an introductory section on statistics and quantitative genetics, it covers both established and new methodologies, providing the genetic and statistical theory on which they are based. Each chapter is written by leading researchers, who give the reader the benefit of their experience with worked examples, study design, and sources of error. The text can be used in conjunction with an associated website that provides supplementary material and links to downloadable software.

Simulating the behavior of a human heart, predicting tomorrow's weather, optimizing the aerodynamics of a sailboat, finding the ideal cooking time for a hamburger: to solve these problems, cardiologists, meteorologists, sportsmen, and engineers can count on math help. This book will lead you to the discovery of a magical world, made up of equations, in which a huge variety of important problems for our life can find useful answers.

This third edition volume expands on the previous editions with updated chapters on longitudinal studies, randomized trials, evidence-based decisions making, and a new section on changing health-related behaviors. The chapters in this book are organized into six parts: Part One focuses on framing clinical research questions and choosing a suitable design; biases that may occur in clinical research; and the ethics associated with doing conducting research on humans. Parts Two through Four discuss designs, measurements, and analysis that pertain to evaluation of risk in longitudinal studies; assessment of therapy in controlled trials; and evaluation of diagnostic tests. Part Five presents methods used in various components of evidence-based decision-making; and Part Six highlights interventions focused on changing health-related behaviors. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of various types of bias, step-by-step, readily reproducible protocols for different research designs, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Cutting-edge and thorough, Clinical Epidemiology: Methods and Protocols, Third Edition is a valuable resource for clinicians and researchers who want to expand their works to humans and use their findings in the health system.

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.

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.

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.

Epidemiology of Diabetes addresses the patterns, risk factors and prevention tactics for the epidemic of diabetes in the US population. Diabetes is a costly and common disease that needs serious attention and awareness. Diabetes causes devastating consequences, such as neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy and vasculopathy. This succinct reference focuses on current data and research on diabetes, and is essential reading for diabetes care providers, as well as health care decision-makers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that more than 100 million US adults are living with diabetes or prediabetes, hence this is a timely resource on the topic.

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.

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.

A practical guide to network meta-analysis with examples and code In the evaluation of healthcare, rigorous methods of quantitative assessment are necessary to establish which interventions are effective and cost-effective. Often a single study will not provide the answers and it is desirable to synthesise evidence from multiple sources, usually randomised controlled trials. This book takes an approach to evidence synthesis that is specifically intended for decision making when there are two or more treatment alternatives being evaluated, and assumes that the purpose of every synthesis is to answer the question for this pre-identified population of patients, which treatment is best ? A comprehensive, coherent framework for network meta-analysis (mixed treatment comparisons) is adopted and estimated using Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods implemented in the freely available software WinBUGS. Each chapter contains worked examples, exercises, solutions and code that may be adapted by readers to apply to their own analyses. This book can be used as an introduction to evidence synthesis and network meta-analysis, its key properties and policy implications. Examples and advanced methods are also presented for the more experienced reader. Methods used throughout this book can be applied consistently: model critique and checking for evidence consistency are emphasised. Methods are based on technical support documents produced for NICE Decision Support Unit, which support the NICE Methods of Technology Appraisal. Code presented is also the basis for the code used by the ISPOR Task Force on Indirect Comparisons. Includes extensive carefully worked examples, with thorough explanations of how to set out data for use in WinBUGS and how to interpret the output. N etwork Meta-Analysis for Decision Making will be of interest to decision makers, medical statisticians, health economists, and anyone involved in Health Technology Assessment including the pharmaceutical industry.

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 demonstrates the importance and potential role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in foreseeing and curbing future global pandemics. The reduction of species diversity has increased the risk of global pandemics and it is therefore not only imperative to articulate and disseminate knowledge on the linkages between human activities and the transmission of viruses to humans, but also to create policy pathways for operationalizing that knowledge to help solve future problems. Although this book has been prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it lays a policy foundation for the effective management or possible prevention of similar pandemics in the future. One effective way of establishing this linkage with a view to promoting planet health is by understanding the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples with a view to demonstrating the significant impact it has on keeping nature intact. This book argues for the deployment of traditional ecological knowledge for land use management in the preservation of biodiversity as a means for effectively managing the transmission of viruses from animals to humans and ensuring planetary health. The book is not projecting traditional ecological knowledge as a panacea to pandemics but rather accentuating its critical role in the effective mitigation of future pandemics. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous studies, animal ecology, environmental ethics and environmental studies more broadly.

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.

COVID-19: Surviving a Pandemic provides critical insights into survival strategies employed by communities and individuals around the world during the pandemic. A central question since this pandemic began has been how to survive it. That question has applied not just to staying alive, but also to staying healthy, both physically and mentally. Survival is certainly key, but surviving, and what that means, is also critical. The scholarship included in this volume will take a closer look at what it means to survive by addressing such issues as the importance of ethnicity in vaccine uptake, the gendered and racialized impacts of the pandemic, the impact on those with disabilities, questions of food security, and what it means to grieve. Drawing on the expertise of scholars from around the world, the work presented here represents a remarkable diversity and quality of impassioned scholarship on the impact of COVID-19 and is a timely and critical advance in knowledge related to the pandemic.

Positively influences career choices within public health Applies basic science to problems raised by the COVID-19 pandemic such as vaccine development and herd immunity Prepares readers with context and tactics for understanding future infectious disease outbreaks Successfully used in college senior health sciences seminar Engaging and balanced treatment of the politicization of public health issues, especially COVID-19

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