A SHORT HISTORY OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE: 3. LEISURE CAN MAKE YOU SICK.

The risk of infection associated with occupations can, and does, extend to certain leisure and sports activities. Generally, such pastimes are regarded as important for human health and mental wellbeing. However, infections may, rarely, be acquired during leisure activities that include water sports and water-related relaxation, and certain sports.

Fontes para uma história do Hospital de Manguinhos / Sources for a history of the Manguinhos Hospital

Resumo O estudo apresenta fontes para uma história do Hospital de Manguinhos, atual Instituto Nacional de Infectologia, reunidas, em sua maior parte no Departamento de Arquivo e Documentação da Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, mas também no acervo constituído na Direção do próprio instituto (em caixas classificadas de maneira ainda informal), assim como na hemeroteca da Biblioteca Nacional, nas Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz e no Centro Técnico Audiovisual do Ministério da Cultura. Apresenta, também, uma tipologia dessas fontes, assim como revela seu potencial analítico para a história das ciências da saúde, mais especificamente, da pesquisa clínica, da medicina e da saúde pública no Brasil, entre 1918 e 2018.

Abstract The present study presents sources for a history of the Manguinhos Hospital (today the Brazilian National Institute of Infectious Diseases), which for the most part are found in the Archives and Documentation Department of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, but also in the administration's own collection (in boxes which are still classified informally) as well as the collection of the Brazilian National Library, in the Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, and in the Brazilian Ministry of Culture's Audiovisual Technical Center. It also presents a typology of these sources, and shows their analytical potential for the history of health sciences and more specifically, of clinical research, medicine, and public health in Brazil between 1918 and 2018.

Vertebral infection in a male individual buried in the monastic cemetery (Cemetery 2) at Ghazali (ca. 670-1270 CE), northern Sudan.

PURPOSE/RESEARCH QUESTION: This article examines pronounced osteoblastic-osteolytic vertebral lesions in a middle adult male (Ghz-2-033), from the Christian Nubian monastic settlement of Ghazali (ca. 670-1270 CE), Sudan, to explore their potential etiology. METHODS: Morphological assessments of sex and age were undertaken in conjunction with macroscopic and radiological methods of assessment for the skeletal lesions documented. RESULTS: Macroscopic assessment of Ghz-2-033 identified mixed osteoblastic-osteolytic lesions in L2-L3 with minor foci in T12-L1, while radiological assessment identified no further lesions. This paleopathological analysis considers tuberculosis, brucellosis, pyogenic intervertebral disc infection, neoplastic conditions, and mycotic infections as potential etiologies. CONCLUSIONS: Tuberculosis is the most probable etiology for the lesions observed. This assessment is based on the morphology of the lesions in conjunction with the known confined living quarters at Ghazali and the presence of tuberculosis vectors (i.e. cattle) in the region. CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE/ORIGINALITY/VALUE: This brief communication contributes original data documenting the presence of tubercular lesions in a monk buried at the Christian Nubian monastery of Ghazali. On a broader level this study contributes to regional and temporal paleopathological dialogues regarding interactions with pathogens in Christian Nubian monastic contexts. LIMITATIONS FOR THIS STUDY: The potentiality of co-infection with other pathogens (e.g. brucellosis, Staphylococcus) with similar macromorphological traits in skeletal remains cannot be entirely discounted. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: The use of biomolecular analyses may help to clarify the potential presence of tuberculosis in individual Ghz-2-033.

Ancient cancers and infection-induced oncogenesis.

Cancers have been reported in bone and soft tissue of ancient agricultural populations. Fossilized bones from prehistoric periods provide evidence of tumors but only one example of cancer. Difficulties in diagnosing the causes of lesions in mummified tissue and fossilized bone, and in interpreting the prevalence of cancers from remains, draw attention to the need for complementary approaches to assess the occurrence of cancer in ancient populations. This paper integrates current knowledge about pathogen induction of cancer with phylogenetic analyses of oncogenic pathogens, and concludes that pathogen-induced cancers were probably generally present in ancient historic and prehistoric human populations. Consideration of cancers in extant human populations and wildlife lends credence to this conclusion, with the caveat that the presence of cancers may depend on population-specific exposures to oncogenic parasites and carcinogens.

Una notable convergencia semántica: infección y miasma / A remarkable semantic convergence: infection and miasma

Resumen Se analiza el desarrollo histórico de los términos "infección" y "miasma". Se entendía por miasma un tipo de aire corrupto o pestilente que emanaba de cuerpos en putrefacción y que propalaba las enfermedades infecciones. Dicho concepto fue el dominante para comprender la causa de las enfermedades infecciosas desde la antigüedad hasta los albores de la teoría microbiana. El concepto de infección tuvo inicialmente un significado similar al de miasma, pero actualmente se define como la invasión de un hospedero por un agente infeccioso. En este trabajo se discutirá que ambos términos derivan del mismo concepto original.

The historical development of the terms "infection" and "miasma" is analyzed. Miasma was understood as a kind of corrupt or pestilent air that emanated from putrefactive bodies and spread infectious diseases. This concept was the dominant one to understand the cause of infectious diseases from antiquity to the dawn of the microbial theory. The concept of infection initially had a similar meaning to miasma, but is currently defined as the invasion of a host by an infectious agent. It will be discussed in this paper that both terms derive from the same original concept.

[The advent of a newborn specialty: 19th century pediatrics]. / Naissance de la pédiatrie au 19e siècle.

Pediatrics began under the most unfavorable conditions that are difficult to imagine nowadays. Children at the start of the 19th century were considered as negligible. The death rate was tremendous, increased by the work of children in factories as soon as 6 years of age in textile industries. In upper classes, infants were fed by a wet nurse, far from their parents and death rate was high as well. The emergence of pediatrics was the result of work carried out in adult medicine in the first half of the 19th century: clinical anatomic method, knowledge of contagious diseases even before the discovery of bacteria, birth of bacteriology. During the whole century, infectious diseases contributed in a large part to children mortality, as that of adults, by cholera, typhus, variola, diphtheria, measles and tuberculosis. Progresses noted during the 2nd part of the century resulted from beginning of hygiene, antisepsis, nutrition improvement, taking consideration of children as human being asking for protection. In contrast, therapeutics as serotherapy, vaccinations at the break of the 20th century played a secondary role.

[Health problems of combatants during the First World War]. / Les problèmes de santé des combattants durant la Première Guerre mondiale.

The First World War because of the use of new weapons, injured more than 3 500 000 people (500 000 in the face), more than diseases (tuberculosis, typhoid fever, etc.) or even weather circumstances. The healing of the war wounds through surgery undertook a significant evolution thanks to the use of asepsis and antiseptics. Mortality go down, opening the way to the physical and psychological rehabilitation of those injured by the war.

History of antibiotics. From salvarsan to cephalosporins.

Infections have represented for a long time the leading cause of death in humans. During the 19th century, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea and diphtheria were considered the main causes of death in children and adults. Only in the late 19th century did it become possible to correlate the existence of microscopic pathogens with the development of various diseases. Within a few years the introduction of antiseptic procedures had begun to reduce mortality due to postsurgical infections. Sanitation and hygiene played a significant role in the reduction of the mortality due to several infectious diseases. The introduction of the first compounds with antimicrobial activity succeeded in conquering many diseases. In this review we analyzed, from a historical perspective, the development of antibiotics and the circumstances that led to their discovery. The first compound with antimicrobial activity was introduced in 1911 by Erlich. He focused his research activity on the discovery of a "magic bullet" to treat syphilis. Afterwards, Foley and colleagues brought penicillin to the forefront. Streptomycin represents the first drug discovered for the treatment of tuberculosis, and its development included the first use of clinical trials. Finally, with the development of cephalosporins, the introduction of new antimicrobial compounds with broad activity against gram-positive and also some gram-negative bacteria began.

Scientific discovery and scientific reputation: the reception of Peyton Rous' discovery of the chicken sarcoma virus.

This article concerns itself with the reception of Rous' 1911 discovery of what later came to be known as the Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV). Rous made his discovery at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research which had been primarily established to conduct research into infectious diseases. Rous' chance discovery of a chicken tumor led him to a series of conjectures about cancer causation and about whether cancer could have an extrinsic cause. Rous' finding was received with some scepticism by the scientific community that held that cancer was not infectious and favored explanations which located the origins of cancer in the inner mechanism of the cell. After 4 years of unsuccessful effort to isolate and further determine the virus Rous felt compelled to discontinue his work on cancer viruses. When 55 years later, the significance of Rous's discovery was attested by the award of the Nobel Prize, it opened up debates about the issues of delayed recognition and scientific reputation. This article also considers why Rous' hypothesis of a viral origin of cancer could not be incorporated into the existing body of knowledge about cancer before the 1950s.

INCAP studies of hematologic and gastrointestinal function in healthy individuals and those with protein-energy malnutrition and infection.

Anemia is highly prevalent, especially in poorly nourished populations living in unsanitary conditions. Studies of the Central American population showed that iron was the predominant deficient hematopoietic micronutrient and that correction of nutrient deficiencies led to hematological normality as defined by WHO. The bioavailability of diverse iron compounds added to the mostly vegetable diets of such populations showed the superior absorption of chelated iron (NaFeEDTA) and its strong effectiveness in correcting iron deficiency when added to sugar. The consequences on development and mental behavioral functions as well as on work capacity of iron deficiency and anemia in infants, children and adults, and the positive effects of their correction was demonstrated. In protein-energy malnourished (PEM) children, the deficit in active tissue mass (basal oxygen consumption) and in total hemoglobin content were closely related. This relationship persisted as the rates of active tissue mass repletion was modified by levels of protein intake. This demonstrated the strong adaptive nature of hemoglobin content in response to oxygen needs in PEM and during recovery. Gastrointestinal functions in PEM and in populations demonstrated the bacterial invasion of the upper GI tract and how this resulted in secondary bile acids that are toxic to the intestinal mucosal cells impairing their absorptive functions. Environmental hygiene in populations reversed gut bacterial migration and improved GI function.

In memoriam of Rudolf virchow: a historical retrospective including aspects of inflammation, infection and neoplasia.

Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (1821-1902) studied medicine and received his academic degree 'Dr. med.' in 1843. In 1856 he was appointed as head of the institute of pathology at the University of Berlin. In 1859, he became a member of the Berlin town council and later additionally a member of the Prussian and the German parliament. With his probably most important publication 'Cellularpathologie' he introduced pathology to a cellular rationale. This was the major basis for his research in oncology. Virchow further studied aspects of inflammation, despite only few links to tumor pathology were drawn. The few links from infection and inflammation to tumor pathology have almost been forgotten or ignored and have never been evaluated and discussed sufficiently. Virchow recognized that inflammation is a pre-disposing factor for tumor genesis. Furthermore, infectious diseases such as syphilis and tuberculosis had elements of a 'tumor process' and were therefore often difficult or impossible to separate from a 'genuine' tumor process, which was recognized by him. He further tried to explain tumor dissemination by an 'infectious' process. Additionally, there were ideas for a coherent explanation of tumor etiology in form of a common bacterial pathogen ('Krebsbacillus').

Diseases of the spine in South American mummies.

OBJECTIVE: The skulls and spinal columns of people from ancient civilizations, which frequently are found in a preserved state at archeological sites, can provide a large amount of information about these individuals' physical condition through paleopathological investigation. METHODS: This study represents the examination of more than 700 human remains dating back more than 8000 years that were recovered from archaeological excavations in the Andean region of southern Peru and northern Chile. RESULTS: Examples of congenital malformations, degenerative processes, infectious diseases, neoplasias, and traumatic diseases were discovered. Congenital anomalies such as spina bifida occulta were relatively common in these populations. No cases of meningomyelocele were discovered. The most common pathological findings were degenerative changes of the vertebral bodies. Large cervical and lumbar osteophytes were identified in some remains. Several cases of cervical spondylosis were determined to be the result of an occupational disease resulting from carrying heavy loads on the back. These heavy loads were supported by wearing around the forehead a tumpline, known as a capacho. The most common infectious disease process in the spine was due to tuberculosis. The diagnosis was made by radiological and histopathological studies, and in several cases the organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis was identified in the soft tissues. Metastatic lesions on the vertebral bodies were identified in a single case. Examples of traumatic spinal injury were rare. Compression fractures were noted infrequently. CONCLUSION: Diseases of the spinal column in the ancient inhabitants of the Andean region of South America were similar to those that affect the present-day population of that area.

Perspective on women's health: editors' 1997-1998 year in review.

Heart disease, breast cancer, and hormone therapy were top clinical concerns in women's health in 1997. One of the major reports on heart disease confirmed that women are no different from men in terms of early infarct-related artery patency rates, reocclusion after thrombolytic therapy, and ventricular functional response to injury/reperfusion; nevertheless, women have 3 times the mortality of men in the first 30 days after an acute myocardial infarction. Research brought only modest gains in the understanding of breast cancer etiology in 1997, but engendered major debate on whether women younger than 50 years should have mammograms every 1 to 2 years. A National Institutes of Health consensus conference said no, but the National Cancer Institute's National Cancer Advisory Board said yes. Evidence of estrogen benefits and risks mounted: One report added to the data suggesting that estrogen may retard age-related memory loss, while another study reported that the risk of breast cancer significantly increased with long-term use of estrogens. The interest in selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), also called "designer estrogens," grew. Efforts to develop pharmacologic treatment for obesity suffered a setback in 1997 when a team reported that 1 in 3 patients who used d-fenfluramine developed abnormal valvular thickening, with the most severe cases needing valve replacement. One of the most promising events in colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in women, was the set of screening guidelines issued by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. The year ended with major ethical debates about multiple gestation and cloning.