2000 Years of Pandemics

2000 Years of Pandemics PDF Author: Claudia Ferreira
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031100352
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
This book analyzes the factors that have sparked pandemics over the past 2000 years, from the Antonine Plague to COVID-19. It is noteworthy that the frequency of pandemics has increased over the past 2000 years. The authors identify three main drivers for the development of pandemics: transportation, human development, and changes in natural ecosystems. It is important to note that with the advent of the industrial age, the length of time it takes for a pandemic to develop has decreased. COVID-19 is certainly not the last pandemic we will face. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to learn from the past 2000 years to help educate general community and public health officials about pandemic risks and help governments prepare for the next pandemic. The book is also very useful in low and middle-income countries where, in the last several decades, viruses with potential for pandemics have originated. It's comprehensiveness and didactic style make this book a valuable read for government health agencies, private organizations, health care professionals and students.

2000 Years of Pandemics

2000 Years of Pandemics PDF Author: Claudia Ferreira
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031100352
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book analyzes the factors that have sparked pandemics over the past 2000 years, from the Antonine Plague to COVID-19. It is noteworthy that the frequency of pandemics has increased over the past 2000 years. The authors identify three main drivers for the development of pandemics: transportation, human development, and changes in natural ecosystems. It is important to note that with the advent of the industrial age, the length of time it takes for a pandemic to develop has decreased. COVID-19 is certainly not the last pandemic we will face. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to learn from the past 2000 years to help educate general community and public health officials about pandemic risks and help governments prepare for the next pandemic. The book is also very useful in low and middle-income countries where, in the last several decades, viruses with potential for pandemics have originated. It's comprehensiveness and didactic style make this book a valuable read for government health agencies, private organizations, health care professionals and students.

Learning from SARS

Learning from SARS PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309182158
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in late 2002 and 2003 challenged the global public health community to confront a novel epidemic that spread rapidly from its origins in southern China until it had reached more than 25 other countries within a matter of months. In addition to the number of patients infected with the SARS virus, the disease had profound economic and political repercussions in many of the affected regions. Recent reports of isolated new SARS cases and a fear that the disease could reemerge and spread have put public health officials on high alert for any indications of possible new outbreaks. This report examines the response to SARS by public health systems in individual countries, the biology of the SARS coronavirus and related coronaviruses in animals, the economic and political fallout of the SARS epidemic, quarantine law and other public health measures that apply to combating infectious diseases, and the role of international organizations and scientific cooperation in halting the spread of SARS. The report provides an illuminating survey of findings from the epidemic, along with an assessment of what might be needed in order to contain any future outbreaks of SARS or other emerging infections.

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease

Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309107695
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
In recent public workshops and working group meetings, the Forum on Microbial Threats of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has examined a variety of infectious disease outbreaks with pandemic potential, including those caused by influenza (IOM, 2005) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) (IOM, 2004). Particular attention has been paid to the potential pandemic threat posed by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which is now endemic in many Southeast Asian bird populations. Since 2003, the H5N1 subtype of avian influenza has caused 185 confirmed human deaths in 11 countries, including some cases of viral transmission from human to human (WHO, 2007). But as worrisome as these developments are, at least they are caused by known pathogens. The next pandemic could well be caused by the emergence of a microbe that is still unknown, much as happened in the 1980s with the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and in 2003 with the appearance of the SARS coronavirus. Previous Forum meetings on pandemic disease have discussed the scientific and logistical challenges associated with pandemic disease recognition, identification, and response. Participants in these earlier meetings also recognized the difficulty of implementing disease control strategies effectively. Ethical and Legal Considerations in Mitigating Pandemic Disease: Workshop Summary as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop.

Pandemic Outbreaks in the 21st Century

Pandemic Outbreaks in the 21st Century PDF Author: Viswanath Buddolla
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323900011
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
In the past two decades, several pandemics have ravaged the globe, giving us several lessons on infectious disease epidemiology, the importance of initial detection and characterization of outbreak viruses, the importance of viral epidemic prevention steps, and the importance of modern vaccines. Pandemic Outbreaks in the Twenty-First Century: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Prevention, and Treatment summarizes the improvements in the 21st century to overcome / prevent / treat global pandemic with future prospective. Divided into 9 chapters, the book begins with an in-depth introduction to the lessons learned from the first pandemic of the 21st century. It describes the history, present and future in terms of detection, prevention and treatment. Followed by chapters on the outbreak, treatment strategies and clinical management of several infectious diseases like MERS, SARD and COVID 19, Pandemic Outbreaks in the Twenty-First Century: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, Prevention, and Treatment, presents chapters on immunotherapies and vaccine technologies to combat pandemic outbreak and challenges. The book finishes with a chapter on the current knowledge and technology to control pandemic outbreaks. All are presented in a practical short format, making this volume a valuable resource for very broad academic audience. - Provides insight to the lessons learned from past pandemics - Gives recommendations, future direction in terms of detection, prevention and treatment of pandemics - Guides readers through the status and recent developments of vaccines to overcome or prevent pandemics - Shows how to enhance the host innate immunity in infectious diseases - Includes a chapter on immunotherapies to combat pandemic outbreaks

Global Catastrophes and Trends

Global Catastrophes and Trends PDF Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262518228
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
A wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at global changes that may occur over the next fifty years—whether sudden and cataclysmic world-changing events or gradually unfolding trends. Fundamental change occurs most often in one of two ways: as a “fatal discontinuity,” a sudden catastrophic event that is potentially world changing, or as a persistent, gradual trend. Global catastrophes include volcanic eruptions, viral pandemics, wars, and large-scale terrorist attacks; trends are demographic, environmental, economic, and political shifts that unfold over time. In this provocative book, scientist Vaclav Smil takes a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at the catastrophes and trends the next fifty years may bring. Smil first looks at rare but cataclysmic events, both natural and human-produced, then at trends of global importance, including the transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources and growing economic and social inequality. He also considers environmental change—in some ways an amalgam of sudden discontinuities and gradual change—and assesses the often misunderstood complexities of global warming. Global Catastrophes and Trends does not come down on the side of either doom-and-gloom scenarios or techno-euphoria. Instead, Smil argues that understanding change will help us reverse negative trends and minimize the risk of catastrophe.

How to Prevent the Next Pandemic

How to Prevent the Next Pandemic PDF Author: Bill Gates
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593534492
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Governments, businesses, and individuals around the world are thinking about what happens after the COVID-19 pandemic. Can we hope to not only ward off another COVID-like disaster but also eliminate all respiratory diseases, including the flu? Bill Gates, one of our greatest and most effective thinkers and activists, believes the answer is yes. The author of the #1 New York Times best seller How to Avoid a Climate Disaster lays out clearly and convincingly what the world should have learned from COVID-19 and what all of us can do to ward off another catastrophe like it. Relying on the shared knowledge of the world’s foremost experts and on his own experience of combating fatal diseases through the Gates Foundation, Gates first helps us understand the science of infectious diseases. Then he shows us how the nations of the world, working in conjunction with one another and with the private sector, how we can prevent a new pandemic from killing millions of people and devastating the global economy. Here is a clarion call—strong, comprehensive, and of the gravest importance.

The Threat of Pandemic Influenza

The Threat of Pandemic Influenza PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309095042
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Moreover, recent problems with the availability and strain-specificity of vaccine for annual flu epidemics in some countries and the rise of pandemic strains of avian flu in disparate geographic regions have alarmed experts about the world's ability to prevent or contain a human pandemic. The workshop summary, The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? addresses these urgent concerns. The report describes what steps the United States and other countries have taken thus far to prepare for the next outbreak of "killer flu." It also looks at gaps in readiness, including hospitals' inability to absorb a surge of patients and many nations' incapacity to monitor and detect flu outbreaks. The report points to the need for international agreements to share flu vaccine and antiviral stockpiles to ensure that the 88 percent of nations that cannot manufacture or stockpile these products have access to them. It chronicles the toll of the H5N1 strain of avian flu currently circulating among poultry in many parts of Asia, which now accounts for the culling of millions of birds and the death of at least 50 persons. And it compares the costs of preparations with the costs of illness and death that could arise during an outbreak.

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic PDF Author: David Quammen
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393066800
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
A masterpiece of science reporting that tracks the animal origins of emerginghuman diseases.

The Plague Year

The Plague Year PDF Author: Lawrence Wright
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593320735
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid-19—its origins, its wide-ranging repercussions, and the ongoing global fight to contain it "A book of panoramic breadth ... managing to surprise us about even those episodes we … thought we knew well … [With] lively exchanges about spike proteins and nonpharmaceutical interventions and disease waves, Wright’s storytelling dexterity makes all this come alive.” —The New York Times Book Review From the fateful first moments of the outbreak in China to the storming of the U.S. Capitol to the extraordinary vaccine rollout, Lawrence Wright’s The Plague Year tells the story of Covid-19 in authoritative, galvanizing detail and with the full drama of events on both a global and intimate scale, illuminating the medical, economic, political, and social ramifications of the pandemic. Wright takes us inside the CDC, where a first round of faulty test kits lost America precious time . . . inside the halls of the White House, where Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger’s early alarm about the virus was met with confounding and drastically costly skepticism . . . into a Covid ward in a Charlottesville hospital, with an idealistic young woman doctor from the town of Little Africa, South Carolina . . . into the precincts of prediction specialists at Goldman Sachs . . . into Broadway’s darkened theaters and Austin’s struggling music venues . . . inside the human body, diving deep into the science of how the virus and vaccines function—with an eye-opening detour into the history of vaccination and of the modern anti-vaccination movement. And in this full accounting, Wright makes clear that the medical professionals around the country who’ve risked their lives to fight the virus reveal and embody an America in all its vulnerability, courage, and potential. In turns steely-eyed, sympathetic, infuriated, unexpectedly comical, and always precise, Lawrence Wright is a formidable guide, slicing through the dense fog of misinformation to give us a 360-degree portrait of the catastrophe we thought we knew.

Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic: Voices from History

Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic: Voices from History PDF Author: Peter Furtado
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500776474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
An eye-opening anthology from the bestselling editor of Histories of Nations, exploring how people around the globe have suffered and survived during plague and pandemic, from the ancient world to the present. Plague, pestilence, and pandemics have been a part of the human story from the beginning and have been reflected in art and writing at every turn. Humankind has always struggled with illness; and the experiences of different cities and countries have been compared and connected for thousands of years. Many great authors have published their eyewitness accounts and survivor stories of the great contagions of the past. When the great Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Damascus in 1348 during the great plague, which went on to kill half of the population, he wrote about everything he saw. He reported, "God lightened their affliction; for the number of deaths in a single day at Damascus did not attain 2,000, while in Cairo it reached the figure of 24,000 a day." From the plagues of ancient Egypt recorded in Genesis to those like the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, and from the Spanish flu of 1918 to the Covid-19 pandemic in our own century, this anthology contains fascinating accounts. Editor Peter Furtado places the human experience at the center of these stories, understanding that the way people have responded to disease crises over the centuries holds up a mirror to our own actions and experiences. Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic includes writing from around the world and highlights the shared emotional responses to pandemics: from rage, despair, dark humor, and heartbreak, to finally, hope that it may all be over. By connecting these moments in history, this book places our own reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic within the longer human story.