Case of Hydrophobia.

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The rise and fall of rabies in Japan: A quantitative history of rabies epidemics in Osaka Prefecture, 1914-1933

Japan has been free from rabies since the 1950s. However, during the early 1900s several large-scale epidemics spread throughout the country. Here we investigate the dynamics of these epidemics between 1914 and 1933 in Osaka Prefecture, using archival data including newspapers. The association between dog rabies cases and human population density was investigated using Mixed-effects models and epidemiological parameters such as the basic reproduction number (R0), the incubation and infectious period and the serial interval were estimated. A total of 4,632 animal rabies cases were reported, mainly in dogs (99.0%, 4,584 cases) during two epidemics from 1914 to 1921, and 1922 to 1933 respectively. The second epidemic was larger (3,705 cases) than the first (879 cases), but had a lower R0 (1.50 versus 2.42). The first epidemic was controlled through capture of stray dogs and tethering of pet dogs. Dog mass vaccination began in 1923, with campaigns to capture stray dogs. Rabies in Osaka Prefecture was finally eliminated in 1933. A total of 3,805 rabid dog-bite injuries, and 75 human deaths were reported. The relatively low incidence of human rabies, high ratio of post-exposure vaccines (PEP) and bite injuries by rabid dogs (minimum 6.2 to maximum 73.6, between 1924 and 1928), and a decline in the proportion of bite victims that developed hydrophobia over time (slope = -0.29, se = 3, p < 0.001), indicated that increased awareness and use of PEP might have prevented disease. Although significantly more dog rabies cases were detected at higher human population densities (slope = 0.66, se = 0.03, p < 0.01), there were fewer dog rabies cases detected per capita (slope = -0.34, se = 0.03, p < 0.01). We suggest that the combination of mass vaccination and restriction of dog movement enabled by strong legislation was key to eliminate rabies. Moreover, the prominent role of the media in both reporting rabies cases and efforts to control the disease likely contributed to promoting the successful participation required to achieve rabies elimination

The naval career of Sir Thomas Spencer Wells in the Mediterranean : 1842-1853

The British naval connection to the Maltese Islands saw the arrival during the nineteenth century of a number of British medical practitioners. Some of these were noteworthy either because of their contribution to local medical and social history, or because of their contribution to the navy and to medicine. One important medical practitioner of note, who during his short stay on the Islands contributed towards improving medical practice in Malta, was Thomas Spencer Wells who served for six years in the Naval Hospital in Malta from 1841 to 1847, subsequently being transferred to the HMS Hibernia and Modeste until his release from the Navy in 1854. Spencer Wells later became one of the leading nineteenth century pioneers in abdominal surgery and a renowned leader of the British Surgical establishment.peer-reviewe

A Case of Hydrophobia in a Child.

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Infectious Affect: The Phobic Imagination In American Literature

Infectious Affect: The Phobic Imagination in American Literature begins with this question: by what literary pathways did the -phobia suffix come to shape U.S. politics so profoundly?�In current political discourse, Americans rely on phobia as a concept to describe conditions of social inequality. People and policies that negatively impact communities based on sexual orientation, gender identification, ethnicity, race, or religion are understood to be homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, or Islamophobic.�However implicitly, these terms also aspire to a widely accepted hypothesis: in short, that systemic inequality begins with and is sustained by a nucleus of fear, on the part of those wielding the greatest political power. Taking part in the new philological turn in literary studies, my dissertation shows that the –phobia suffix first began to be adapted from medical literature to explain sociopolitical phenomena in the late 1700s, then went on to catch on rapidly in the antebellum period. At the same time, in tracing this history we discover that phobia’s proliferation as a political category did not go uncontested. I take less interest, then, in those who played by the rules of a consolidating phobic imagination than I do in writers who repurposed it to counterintuitive ends. In telling the backstory of activist phobias,�Infectious Affect�explores the rise of a phobic imagination in medical, literary, and political contexts alike, proposing that phobia activated a new dynamism between disparate modes of knowledge production

Simulating communication routes in Mediterranean alluvial plains

Societies exchange knowledge, ideas and merchandise throughout their territories. Topography plays a fundamental role in the trajectory of such movements whilst helping to explain the distribution of human constructions. Standard GIS functions have been employed widely to simulate communication routes between settlements, but the straight application of published least cost route models proved inadequate for Mediterranean alluvial plain areas in which seasonal floods become an important factor to acknowledge. The objective of this study is the production of a new model, using topographic and hydrologic factors as variables from which it would be possible to simulate a route, and test it against known Roman itineraries. The selected Roman stretches are Girona – Coll de Pannisars and Tarragona – Montblanc. The new model shows the need to consider each case individually but also stresses the hydrologic factor, expressed in seasonal floods, as being of prime importance in the creation and development of Roman roads in Mediterranean alluvial plains