Differential mortality of infectious disease in Italian polities: COVID-19, past plague epidemics, and currently endemic respiratory disease.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has harshly impacted Italy since its arrival in February 2020. In particular, provinces in Italy's Central and Northern macroregions have dealt with disproportionately greater case prevalence and mortality rates than those in the South. In this paper, we compare the morbidity and mortality dynamics of 16th and 17th century Plague outbreaks with those of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic across Italian regions. We also include data on infectious respiratory diseases which are presently endemic to Italy in order to analyze the regional differences between epidemic and endemic disease. A Growth Curve Analysis allowed for the estimation of time-related intercepts and slopes across the 16th and 17th centuries. Those statistical parameters were later incorporated as criterion variables in multiple General Linear Models. These statistical examinations determined that the Northern macroregion had a higher intercept than the Southern macroregion. This indicated that provinces located in Northern Italy had historically experienced higher plague mortalities than Southern polities. The analyses also revealed that this geographical differential in morbidity and mortality persists to this day, as the Northern macroregion has experienced a substantially higher COVID-19 mortality than the Southern macroregion. These results are consistent with previously published analyses. The only other stable and significant predictor of epidemic disease mortality was foreign urban potential, a measure of the degree of interconnectedness between 16th and 17th century Italian cities. Foreign urban potential was negatively associated with plague slope and positively associated with plague intercept, COVID-19 mortality, GDP per capita, and immigration per capita. Its substantial contribution in predicting both past and present outcomes provides a temporal continuity not seen in any other measure tested here. Overall, this study provides compelling evidence that temporally stable geographical factors, impacting both historical and current foreign pathogen spread above and beyond other hypothesized predictors, underlie the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had throughout Central and Northern Italian provinces.

Chagas disease: Historic perspective.

This review is a perspective on the history of Chagas disease, and it adopts a novel approach from literary studies, historical documents and the science and epidemiology of the nature of the disease. From this analysis, comes the review's working definition of the Contact Zone (CZ): "the space in which geographically and historically separated people come into contact with each other and establish long-lasting relationships, which usually involve coercive conditions, radical inequality and intolerable conflict." In the Patient-Physician CZ, we verified the triple transition phenomena: the American trypanosomiasis shifted from a rural, acute, and vectorial transmitted disease to an urban, chronic and non-vectorial disease. In the Academic CZ, we describe the original disagreements which denied the existence of the disease and the current controversies about pathogenic mechanisms and etiological treatment. From the News from Latin America, and in the Original CZ, we will review the evolution of different forms of transmission. As in any good story, research across broad disciplines is necessary to reveal historical perspectives, scientific approaches, and the epidemiology of the disease, which has a prequel of 9000 years and an open ending: thus, we explore across the Global CZ, with its multiple and unexpected actors.

[To treat or not to treat? Scientific controversy about the treatment for chronic Chagas' disease patients.]. / ¿Tratar o no tratar? La controversia científica sobre el tratamiento para los enfermos de Chagas crónico.

Chagas disease is one of the main endemic illnesses in Latin America. Since 1969 up to the present, the treatment of chronic Chagas patients has been the object of a scientific-medical controversy mobilizing several bodies of knowledge and actors. The resolution of the controversy has direct effects on the health of patients; however, they have been systematically excluded of public debates. In this paper we identified and specified four different steps of the controversy, showing the different positions adopted by the actors implicated, analyzing their statements, the scientific knowledge mobilized during the debates and the consequences for the establishment of norms for the treatment. We conclude showing that what makes up the central issue of the controversy is not what the actors implicated explicitly state as it but the criteria (technical and cognitive) through which are measured and defined "illness" and "cure" states. This research is about a case study in Argentina.

Los ferrocarriles del estado en Argentina y su contribución a la ciencia / The Argentina state railroad and its contribution to science

En la Argentina, el Estado financió, construyó y operó los ferrocarriles estatales guiados por un criterio de subsidiariedad hasta el primer gobierno de Yrigoyen (1916-1922) en que se introdujeron cambios y se modificó parcialmente la orientación de la política ferroviaria. Los Ferrocarriles del Estado contribuyeron al desarrollo de la ciencia, su demanda de profesionales ayudó a la formación del campo profesional de los ingenieros y la conexión de las capitales de las provincias del centro y norte facilitó las comunicaciones y las tareas científicas, en particular aquellas que estudiaron las enfermedades endémicas del país.

In Argentina, the State financed, built, and ran government-own railroads based on recourse to subsidies until the first Yrigoyen administration (1916-1922), which introduced changes and shifted the direction of rail policy somewhat. The Ferrocarriles del Estado contributed to the development of science, created a demand for professionals which helped form the professional engineering field, and, by linking the capitals of central and northern provinces, facilitated both communications and scientific tasks themselves, especially research into diseases endemic to the country.

[The Argentina State railroad and its contribution to science]. / Los ferrocarriles del Estado en Argentina y su contribución a la ciencia.

In Argentina, the State financed, built, and ran government-own railroads based on recourse to subsidies until the first Yrigoyen administration (1916-1922), which introduced changes and shifted the direction of rail policy somewhat. The Ferrocarriles del Estado contributed to the development of science, created a demand for professionals which helped form the professional engineering field, and, by linking the capitals of central and northern provinces, facilitated both communications and scientific tasks themselves, especially research into diseases endemic to the country.