[The Soviet-Chinese cooperation in production of penicillin in the 1950s].

The article considers, on the basis of analysis of archival documents, issue of Soviet-Chinese cooperation in field of production of penicillin in the 1950s. The main attention is paid to history of construction of penicillin plant in Shijiazhuang. It is demonstrated that it was carried out on preferential terms for China and it was under special control of the USSR government. The building of plant was bound by great difficulties conditioned by range of project, specifics of production conditions in China, special requests of customer, necessity to manufacture non-standard equipment. The implementation of this project of enormous humanitarian significance was at the same time manifestation of concurrence between the USSR and the USA for geopolitical and ideological influence in East Asia.

Plague and local response in North China, 1900-28.

Breakthroughs in international biomedical science circa 1900 meant that plague could be contained through strict quarantine regulations. These measures were successfully deployed with help from local governments during outbreaks of pneumonic plague in Manchuria (1910-11), Shanxi (1918), and elsewhere in North China. This containment shows the effectiveness of uniting international knowledge and local cooperation in disaster response. Yet, in later outbreaks in similar locations, control measures identical to those instituted a decade earlier were rejected, and plague spread largely unchecked. Historical case studies of the control and spread of infectious disease in North China reveal the complexities of the relationship between global knowledge and its broader, local integration, variation in what constitutes effective 'local' cooperation in adopting international knowledge, and the paramount importance of the locality to the landscape of disaster response. History can reveal critical issues in localisation of disaster response still salient today.

How Effective Was the Global South Knowledge Exchange? The Chinese-Funded Medical Projects in Tanzania, 1968-1990s.

Knowledge circulation scholars have examined the North-South exchange as mainly one-way traffic, where the Global South is perceived as the recipient of knowledge from the Global North. In contrast, this article underscores Southern countries' role in technoscientific development by examining actors in Chinese-funded medical projects in Tanzania. It shows that Chinese sponsorship of Tanzania's health sector was critical not only in breaking the yoke of dependency on medical knowledge from the North but also in debunking the Global North narratives positing Africa as backward and lacking initiative in medical and industrial technologies. Employing qualitative analytical methods on pertinent archival, oral accounts and published sources, this article shows that despite the Sino-Tanzanian cooperation's potential, knowledge exchanges were arguably one-way rather than reciprocal, and the exchanged knowledge remained ineffective and unsustainable owing to ill-thought modus operandi from the onset.

The Centenary of the Leprosy Relief Association (Lepra)-a moment for celebration and reflection†.

The year 2024 is the Centenary of the foundation of the Leprosy Relief Association (Lepra), formerly the British Empire Leprosy Relief Association (BELRA). The name of the organization changed to the LEProsy Relief Association (LEPRA) in 1976 but has been known as Lepra since 2008. Over the years it has worked closely with members and office holders of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Its work has encompassed activities from the earliest initiatives to ensure appropriate living conditions for those with the disease to the development of leprosy chemotherapy. However, this has now evolved into a strong partnership between the UK- and India-based Lepra hubs, which are carrying out research and public health initiatives ranging from elimination of prejudice against those with leprosy to adopting the recently launched WHO programme for skin NTDs to facilitate integrated control and management regimens. The fight against leprosy has always been a partnership between a wide variety of disease-specific NGOs, health-care workers and international health agencies. The story of Lepra illustrates the central role of these partnerships and national as well as international collaboration.

The world was their laboratory: how two pioneer scientist-administrators, James Watt and Zdenek Fejfar, advanced methods and international collaboration in cardiovascular disease epidemiology during the Cold War.

In 1952, James Watt, a young US Public Health Service (PHS) infectious disease epidemiologist, was appointed-amid wide surprise-director of the US National Heart Institute (NHI) where he served until 1961. He skillfully advanced epidemiologic research methods and study conduct nationally while also establishing epidemiology in the administrative hierarchy of the institute. Watt soon turned to development of an effective program in international cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiology under auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the United Nations in Geneva. That effort resulted in the 1959 appointment of Zdenek Fejfar, a young Czech clinical investigator, as director of the WHO CVD Unit. The coming together of Watt and Fejfar, with a joint focus on improved methods and population comparisons, helped establish a vigorous international community of CVD epidemiology. Their collaboration and friendship remained active and close throughout their career assignments and thereafter, as documented in this story.

C. Richard Conti and Chinese cardiology 1989-2022.

The death of C. Richard Conti, MD, MACC in February 2022 marked the passing of a global leader in cardiology who played a pivotal role in the history of the American College of Cardiology and the College's outreach to the People's Republic of China.

Cuba-U.S. scientific collaboration: Beyond the embargo.

Cuba and the U.S. have the oldest Academies of Sciences outside Europe. Both countries have a long history of scientific collaboration that dates to the 1800s. Both scientific communities also share geographical proximity and common scientific research interests mainly in Biotechnology, Meteorology, and Public Health research. Despite these facts, scientists from both nations face serious barriers to cooperation raised by the U.S. embargo established in 1961 that prohibits exchanges with Cuba. The study aims to analyze the effects of U.S. policy on scientific collaboration with Cuban scientific institutions. The results of the bibliometric analysis of Cuba-U.S. joint publications in the Web of Science, and Scopus databases between 1980 to 2020 indicate sustained growth of scientific collaboration between scientists of both nations over the past forty years. The results also show that after the 1980 Smithsonian Institution and the Cuba's Academy of Sciences agreement significantly increased scientific collaboration between U.S. scientists with their Cuban peers. President Barack Obama's approach to normalizing the U.S. Cuba relations in 2015 enhanced Cuban scientific production with U.S. scientists by exceeding the number of collaborative papers published during any preceding U.S. Presidential administration. By 2020, Cuba had expanded its scientific links to 80% of the countries in the world. Cuban and U.S. scientists converted from adversaries into partners, showing that science is an effective diplomatic channel. A particularly important question for the future is how robust is the collaboration system in the face of greater political restrictions?

The Life and Death of An American Statesman.

John Hay was born in a small mid-western town and sent by his physician father to Brown University for his education. He returned to Springfield IL where he was hired by Abraham Lincoln as a personal secretary and stayed with Lincoln through the assassination. He then returned to private life, married into a wealthy family and developed a successful literary and investment career. In 1879, he joined the State Department and later became Secretary under presidents McKinley and Roosevelt. He negotiated many important treaties including those related to building the Panama Canal. Later in life, his health deteriorated with symptoms of angina pectoris and heart failure. Limited medical understanding of these matters at the time are reviewed but were then of little benefit. Probably his most effective therapy was rest during weeks of carbonated baths at Bad Nauheim. Hay died suddenly, shortly after arriving home from the last of these trips.

Research trends for papillary thyroid carcinoma from 2010 to 2019: A systematic review and bibliometrics analysis.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid carcinoma comprises the fastest rising incidence of carcinomas over the past decade. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most predominant type of thyroid carcinoma. This study aimed to assess the research trends in the field of PTC. METHODS: Publications from January 2010 to December 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database using Thompson Reuters. Searching strategies were determined according to Medical Subject Heading terms. Different kinds of bibliometrics software, such as HistCite and VOSviewer, and online bibliometrics analysis platforms were utilized to evaluate and visualize the results. RESULTS: A total of 8102 publications across 93 countries were identified, with the annual number of publications showing an increasing trend. The United States, China, and South Korea showed their dominant position in PTC publication outputs, H-index, total citations, and international collaborations. Thyroid was the most productive journal. Akira Miyauchi published the most articles, and the most productive institution was Yonsei University. The hotspots keywords proliferation, invasion and metastasis, diagnoses and prognoses, therapeutic resistance, recurrence, and microcarcinomas appeared earlier and were sustained over the last 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: This bibliometric study provides a comprehensive analysis delineating the scientific productivity, collaboration, and research hotspots within the PTC field, which will be very helpful when focusing on the direction of research over the next few years.

US-China health exchange and collaboration following COVID-19.

Strong US-China collaboration on health and medicine is a crucial element of the global effort against COVID-19. We review the history of health collaboration and exchanges between the public and private sectors in the USA and China, including the long-lasting collaboration between governmental public health agencies of the two countries. Academic and scientific exchanges should be reinvigorated and the increasing valuable role of non-profit foundations acknowledged. The shared interests of the two countries and the magnitude of the pandemic necessitate both countries to collaborate and cooperate. We provide recommendations to the two governments and the global health community to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prepare for future threats. TRANSLATION: For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

The past and present of pandemic management: health diplomacy, international epidemiological surveillance, and COVID-19.

The establishment of international sanitary institutions, which took place in the context of rivalry among the great European powers and their colonial expansion in Asia, allowed for the development of administrative systems of international epidemiological surveillance as a response to the cholera epidemics at the end of the nineteenth century. In this note, I reflect on how a historical analysis of the inception of international epidemiological surveillance and pandemic management helps us to understand what is happening in the COVID-19 pandemic today.

Now we are 30: 10 more years of MASCC.

This paper chronicles the third decade of MASCC from 2010. There was a generational change in this decade, building on the solid foundation of the founders. It included the first female President, and a new Executive Director with a background in strategy and business development and operations as applied to healthcare. The headquarters moved from Copenhagen to Toronto. The first meeting to be held outside of Europe or North America was held in Adelaide, Australia, and the membership in the Asia Pacific region expanded. A program of international affiliates saw national supportive care organisations formally link with MASCC. In cancer supportive care, there was a raft of new toxicities to manage as immunotherapies were added to conventional cytotoxic treatment. There was also a greater emphasis on the psychosocial needs of patients and families. New MASCC groups were formed to respond to this evolution in cancer management. The MASCC journal, Supportive Care in Cancer, continued to grow in impact, and MASCC published two editions of a textbook of supportive care and survivorship. The decade ended with the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that served to highlight the importance of good supportive care to patients with cancer.