System of measurement of the severity of periodontal disease in past populations

This paper presents a review of the antiquity of periodontal disease, discussing past aetiological concepts in comparison to current research on the causes of this condition. As periodontal disease is analysable on dry bone specimens, it is possible to document its natural history. To date, little work has been done on an actual system of measurement for periodontal disease in such specimens. A new system of measurement is proposed, which is confined to evaluating the periodontal status of post-mortem skulls. The system is a modification of the Ramfjord index for periodontal disease (PDI) and can be adapted for both individual specimen measurement and for population studies. Seven skulls, ca. AD 500–700, from the Varden Site at Long Point, Ontario, were examined using the proposed system. Mean attachment loss was computed for each of the seven specimens. The results revealed one specimen with early periodontitis, four with moderate periodontitis and two with advanced periodontitis. This system provides a concise method for classification of the severity of periodontal disease in dry bone specimens that will be useful in documenting the history of this disease.     

Paget's disease in pre‐contact Florida? Revisiting the Briarwoods site in Gulf coast Florida

This report presents results of a reanalysis addressing the presence of Paget's disease (Osteitis deformans) in the pre‐contact Safety Harbour Briarwoods site (8PA66), a burial mound in Pasco County along Gulf coast Florida, dating around 1000–1500 AD. Due to the paucity of published histological and radiological analyses as well as the suspect nature of this Paget's disease report, a new study was conducted. The diagnosis was suspect for three reasons. First, the original diagnosis was based on five skeletal fragments from five different burials making the results questionable. Secondly, Paget's disease is very similar to treponemal disease and can possibly be misdiagnosed. The characteristic histological mosaic pattern found in Paget's disease provides the most definitive differential diagnosis. Thirdly, Paget's disease is found primarily in European populations and this is a pre‐contact site. Histological sections from the suspected Pagetic bones were analysed for the presence of the mosaic pattern. Macroscopic and microscopic analyses were unable to support or deny the presence of Paget's disease due to the fragmentary nature of the skeletal elements as well as extensive diagenesis resulting from exposure to the environment. The presence of Paget's disease could not be confirmed or refuted at Briarwoods due to extensive taphonomic damage. However, it is suggested that the presence of treponemal disease should be investigated because although not originally reported, the presence of saber‐shin tibiae consistent with this disease are present at this site. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The distribution of skeletal lesions in treponemal disease: is the lymphatic system responsible?

The differential diagnosis of bone lesions in treponemal disease is well established in palaeopathology. However, the actual mechanism responsible for the characteristic distribution of bone involvement is not as clear. Two mechanisms are proposed in the literature. Firstly, that bone lesions are the result of direct extension from the skin rash of the secondary stage of disease. Secondly, that bones situated closer to the skin are more vulnerable to local trauma and therefore more likely to elicit a subperiosteal bone response. We propose an alternative explanation for the characteristic distribution of bone lesions in treponemal disease. This explanation is based on the close association between the lymphatic and skeletal systems and the pathogenesis of treponemal disease. This paper argues that the position of the lymphatic nodes and vessels, with little soft tissue intervention between bone tissue, mirrors the characteristic pattern of skeletal involvement in treponemal disease. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disease, Social Identity, and Risk: Rethinking the Geography of AIDS

The emergence of new diseases and the re-emergence of 'old' diseases necessitates a relook at what shapes vulnerability to ill health. A framework is proposed that combines a realist approach to mapping vulnerability with feminist and post-structural approaches that focus more attention upon the role of social identities and cultural framings of disease. Too often investigations of disease focus either upon structural determinants of risk such as political policy and the economy, or on discursive definitions of disease that impact its experience. A combination of these approaches would result in a more effective framework for evaluating vulnerability, and subsequently for generating effective disease prevention strategies. The social, economic, political, and cultural context of HIV/AIDS in Malawi is given as an illustration of this framework.     

英国保守党政府的疯牛病对策

自1986年英国首先确诊疯牛病以来,疯牛病在英国横行十余年。在疯牛病问题上,英国保守党政府不仅没有正确处理好经济利益与公共健康的关系,使公共健康受到疾病的严重威胁;而且也没有很好地承担起国际责任,导致疯牛病扩散至其他国家。     

Malaria,in second place,sees fewer victims,but greater difficulty of control. With climate,including global warming,as complications

This is an article on malarial risks and prevention. Malaria is the deadliest tropical parasitic disease and one of the leading causes of death. The risk for this disease has been linked with changes in land use related to road building, mining, logging, and agricultural and irrigation projects. Global climatic change, disintegration of health services, armed conflicts, and mass movements of refugees also contribute to the increasing risk for malaria. Disease prevention includes a variety of measures that may protect against infection. They may be directed against the mosquito vector or against the development of disease in infected individuals. The WHO stresses the curability of malaria in spite of the occurrence of drug resistance. If the antimalarial drugs are used properly and targeted to those at risk, malarial disease and death can be reduced. Vaccines are also in development; an effective one could be available within the next 7-15 years.     

Investigating the Influence of Spatial and Temporal Granularities on Agent‐Based Modeling

Epidemic agent‐based models (ABMs) simulate individuals in artificial societies that are capable of movement, interaction, and transmitting disease among themselves. ABMs have been used to study the spread of disease at various spatial and temporal scales ranging from small communities to the world, over days, months, and years. The representations of space and time often vary between different epidemic ABMs and can be influenced by factors such as the size of a modeled population, computational requirements, population environments, and disease‐related data. The influence that the representations of space and time have on epidemic ABMs is difficult to assess. Here we show that the finest representations of space and time—termed spatial and temporal granularities (STGs)—in a parsimonious ABM affect speed, intensity, and spatial spread of a synthetic disease. Specifically, we found disease spread faster and more intensely as spatial granularity is coarsened, whereas disease spread slower and less intensely as temporal granularity is coarsened in a parsimonious ABM. Our study is the first to use the same epidemic ABM to examine the influence of STGs. Our results demonstrate that STGs influence ABM dynamics including early disease burnout and that an interrelationship exists between the coarsening of STGs and the speed and intensity at which disease spreads. Our parsimonious ABM is extended based on a structured community model and we found STGs also influence ABM dynamics in a more realistic context that includes hierarchical movement. Broadly, our study serves as a basis for further inquiry toward the influence of space–time representations on more realistic models that include multiscale mobility, routine movements (e.g., commuting), and heterogeneous population distributions.     

Inca and colonial settlement,coca cultivation and endemic disease in the tropical forest

A configuration unfolds from early colonial chronicles, the archaeological record and epidemiological evidence that infectious disease was a critical factor in constraining durable pre-Hispanic settlement in the Amazon forest. The Incas' main interest in the wet tropical valleys beyond the mountain front, particularly those northeast of Cuzco the capital, was to grow coca. Quest for the sacred leaf justified intrusions into a hyperendemic zone of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, a complex protoxoal disease carried by sand flies that results in dermal lesions and grotesque necrosis of the face. In an effort to avoid this disfiguring disease, the Incas carried on trade relations with forest tribes, subjugated some of these tribes to clear the forest for them, and shifted people from analogous climates elsewhere. The most important mechanism was to control the length of the work period of coca labourers from the highlands. Traditional vertical migration of Andean natives and siting of pre-Conquest dwelling sites largely above the zone of leishmaniasis contraction suggest an ancient geographical pattern of disease avoidance. After the Conquest, disease mortality was very high, as Spaniards expanded coca cultivation but disregarded many of the indigenous safeguards. Adjustments to an insalubrious yet compelling environment are more persuasive than agricultural limitations in understanding the deep-seated past aversion of highland Indians to sustained occupance of the selva.     

Subsistence and Settlement Correlates of Treponemal Disease: Temporal Patterns in Pre‐Columbian East Tennessee

After ca 1000 BC , coinciding with the transition to sedentism, tertiary stage treponemal disease apparently becomes osteologically pervasive in pre‐Columbian North America. However, varying interobserver treponemal disease diagnostic thresholds, sampling error and the possibly ecosensitive nature of the pre‐Columbian nonvenereal treponemal disease variants (i.e. yaws and treponarid) prevents subsistence‐settlement pattern from becoming a reliable predictor of treponemal disease prevalence. This is particularly true of later prehistory with the transition from horticulture to intensive, maize‐based agriculture. To address whether treponemal disease visibility does vary across this specific subsistence‐settlement threshold, subadults (4+ years of age) and adults from 11 late prehistoric sites (N = 997) from the same geographic area of East Tennessee were sampled for the presence of treponemal disease. Six sites (N = 279) primarily date to the Late Woodland period (AD 700–900) and culturally belong to what is referred to as the Hamilton mortuary complex. The sample is archaeologically characterised as horticulturalist with presumably a dispersed farmstead or hamlet settlement pattern. Six sites (N = 718) date to the Late Mississippian (AD 1300–1550, Dallas phase) and are maize‐intensive agriculturalists with a large, aggregate village settlement pattern. The sites were examined using three different levels of treponemal disease diagnostic confidence. Treponemal disease raw frequency does indeed differ across the levels of diagnostic confidence between the total Late Woodland horticulturalist sample (4.3–5.5%) and total Late Mississippian maize agriculturalist sample (5.4–6.5%). The meaning is complex as the Dallas phase sample may have a socially segregated elite; the mound‐interred (1.8%) relative to the village‐interred (6.1–7.4%) exhibited significantly fewer cases of treponemal disease. Tentatively, treponemal disease visibility does appear to co‐associate with sedentism and perhaps (if the mound‐interred Dallas individuals are elites) also aggregated settlement. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Human biology in the Classic Maya collapse: Evidence from paleopathology and paleodiet

We review evidence from human biology—paleopathological and isotopic paleodietary studies on ancient Maya skeletons—to assess the validity of ecological models of the Classic Maya collapse, in which elevated disease and deteriorating diet are commonly assumed. To be upheld, the health arguments of ecological models require that the Maya disease burden (1) was greater than that for many other societies and (2) increased over the span of occupation. The dietary argument requires (1) consistent change in diet from Preclassic and Early Classic Periods to the Terminal Classic and (2) increasing social divergence in diet. A correlation between diet and disease is necessary to link these arguments. Neither pathology nor isotopic data consistently support these criteria. Instead, it appears that local environmental and political factors created diversity in both disease burden and diet. In view of the human biological data, we are skeptical of ecological models as generalized explanations for the abandonment of Classic Maya sites in the southern lowlands.     

不稳定青铜器的处理方法

“青铜病”的稳定问题对文物保护工作者来说还是一个挑战。文献报道了不少的处理方法,每种方法都有其优点及不足之处。本文对“青铜病”的处理方法进行了考察,主要讨论了化学封护法的应用及其未来的研究方向。     

Pre-Columbian treponematosis in medieval Britain

There has been much debate regarding the origins of treponemal disease and, in particular, acquired syphilis. Greater numbers of skeletons with apparently diagnostic bone lesions in the New World than in the Old have given rise to the postulate, particularly advanced by American workers, that the disease originated there prior to AD 1492 and was carried back to the Old World by Columbus's sailors. This paper presents evidence for the presence of treponemal disease in medieval Norwich prior to AD 1492, however. The dating of the site is good and the skeleton concerned comes from a well-sealed context. Others in the group have similar lesions and there are four individuals with evidence of leprosy. All were buried in a communal cemetery. The individual has widespread, bilateral, florid periostitis, especially of the tibiae and fibulae, and the radiographic changes support the diagnosis of treponemal disease. Differential diagnosis and geographical situation suggest that this skeleton displays evidence of syphillis.     

Metropolitan Scurvy in the Shadow of the Cook Voyages

Recent scholarship on scurvy in 18th-century Britain has focused on the disease in the context of voyages of exploration, especially those bound for the Pacific Ocean. Using materials from quack physicians, print culture and popular song, this essay contends that the problem of scurvy was just as acute in metropolitan London and elsewhere in Britain. By studying representations of the disease and its markets at home in Britain, it aims to shed new light on the treatment and perception of the disease at sea, particularly during the voyages of James Cook (1768?79).     

Malaria and malaria‐like disease in the early Middle Ages

Malaria impairs human reproduction, augments excess mortality, and lowers productivity. It can exercise a debilitating effect so profound that it defines regions. The disease is an essential element in histories of places and periods in which it was endemic. Although many European regions are thought to have had a long association with malaria, evidence for the disease, the parasites that cause it, and the mosquitoes that transmit it, is thin before 1900. Malaria's early medieval history is opaque. This paper clears up contours of malaria's occurrence in Frankish Europe. It surveys sources relevant to its study and establishes guidelines for retrospectively diagnosing the disease. It argues that malaria was plentiful north of the Alps before 1000 and that it influenced demographic trends where it was endemic.     

青铜粉状锈中生物因素的影响

本文探讨了青铜粉状锈中生物因素的影响。实验结果表明：微生物在青铜腐蚀中起了促进作用。     

Changes in the distribution of osteoarthritis over historical time

A total of 2635 skeletons recovered from different sites in England was examined for the presence of osteoarthritis (OA); 206 were from pre-medieval sites, 1453 from medieval sites and 976 from post-medieval sites. Where OA was considered to be present in a joint, the site was noted and for each time period the total number of anatomical sites with the condition was determined and the number of major sites with OA (10 in number) was expressed as a proportion of this total. There were no differences in the distribution of osteoarthritis between the pre-medieval and medieval periods but there were between the medieval and post-medieval periods. In the post-medieval period the proportion of osteoarthritis of the knee increased whereas that of the hip decreased; the proportion of osteoarthritis of the hands also increased whereas that of the wrist decreased. Other data presented indicate that patellofemoral disease is about twice as common as tibio-femoral disease in both medieval and post-medieval periods and that lateral compartment disease is almost as common as medial compartment disease.     

Toronto's Health Department in action: influenza in 1918 and SARS in 2003

This article compares the Toronto Health Department's role in controlling the 1918 influenza epidemic with its activities during the SARS outbreak in 2003 and concludes that local health departments are the foundation for successful disease containment, provided that there is effective coordination, communication, and capacity. In 1918, Toronto's MOH Charles Hastings was the acknowledged leader of efforts to contain the disease, care for the sick, and develop an effective vaccine, because neither a federal health department nor an international body like WHO existed. During the SARS outbreak, Hastings's successor, Sheela Basrur, discovered that nearly a decade of underfunding and new policy foci such as health promotion had left the department vulnerable when faced with a potential epidemic. Lack of cooperation by provincial and federal authorities added further difficulties to the challenge of organizing contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation for suspected and probable cases and providing information and reassurance to the multi-ethnic population. With growing concern about a flu pandemic, the lessons of the past provide a foundation for future communicable disease control activities.