Historical evidence for economic effects of COVID-19.

Like wars and socio-politic shifts, contagious diseases have changed the economics and politics of the world throughout history. In 2020, the world faced COVID-19, a globally effective virus leading to mass losses and socio-economic panic. Due to apparent psycho-social conditions, analyzing the potential economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was inevitable. Thus, discussing economic effects of previous global and regional epidemics is considered beneficial. This research evaluated most of the known epidemics and their effects on economics and socio-politics by reviewing scientific literature. In addition to the vast literature and observations on the ongoing process, we assessed the potential impacts of COVID-19 and potential ways to overcome these impacts. The most urgent socio-economic measures needed to combat the negative effects of a contagious disease are related to unemployment with its income effects and security of all sectors. To prevent persistent unemployment, service, retail, and even industrial sectors need to be supported. Additionally, we discussed the need for re-organizing the funding and managerial sustainability of healthcare services to be prepared for future.

[From "culprits" to "victims:" the expansion and professionalization of the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century]. / De "culpables" a "víctimas": expansión y profesionalización del sistema de salud en la provincia Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX.

From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th, the province of Mendoza presented problematic sanitary conditions due to rapid demographic and urban growth, the scarcity of public services, and the poor state of the old colonial city (destroyed by the 1861 earthquake), which facilitated the spread of various infectious diseases. The objective of this article is to inquire into the ways in which the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza both expanded and became increasingly professionalized from the late 19th to early 20th century. We explore how these factors, along with the predominant social representations of disease that permeated the discourses of governing elites, influenced public policy aimed at combating the diseases of the time. To that end, we consulted a wide range of written documents and photographic material that allowed us to analyze changes in discourse as well as public policy.

Entre fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, la provincia de Mendoza presentaba un estado sanitario marcado por el crecimiento demográfico y urbanístico, la escasez de los servicios públicos y la destrucción de la antigua ciudad colonial como consecuencia del terremoto de 1861, lo que propiciaba un ambiente favorable para el desarrollo de diversas enfermedades infectocontagiosas. El objetivo de este artículo es indagar cómo se fue profesionalizando y expandiendo el sistema de salud en la provincia de Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX e inicios del XX, y cómo esos factores, junto con las representaciones sobre la enfermedad que predominaban en el discurso de la elite gobernante, incidieron en las políticas públicas para combatir las dolencias de la época. Para ello se consultaron diversos documentos escritos y fotográficos que permitieron analizar las modificaciones del discurso y las políticas públicas implementadas.

De "culpables" a "víctimas": expansión y profesionalización del sistema de salud en la provincia Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX / From "culprits" to "victims": the expansion and professionalization of the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

RESUMEN Entre fines del siglo XIX y comienzos del XX, la provincia de Mendoza presentaba un estado sanitario marcado por el crecimiento demográfico y urbanístico, la escasez de los servicios públicos y la destrucción de la antigua ciudad colonial como consecuencia del terremoto de 1861, lo que propiciaba un ambiente favorable para el desarrollo de diversas enfermedades infectocontagiosas. El objetivo de este artículo es indagar cómo se fue profesionalizando y expandiendo el sistema de salud en la provincia de Mendoza a fines del siglo XIX e inicios del XX, y cómo esos factores, junto con las representaciones sobre la enfermedad que predominaban en el discurso de la elite gobernante, incidieron en las políticas públicas para combatir las dolencias de la época. Para ello se consultaron diversos documentos escritos y fotográficos que permitieron analizar las modificaciones del discurso y las políticas públicas implementadas.

ABSTRACT From the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th, the province of Mendoza presented problematic sanitary conditions due to rapid demographic and urban growth, the scarcity of public services, and the poor state of the old colonial city (destroyed by the 1861 earthquake), which facilitated the spread of various infectious diseases. The objective of this article is to inquire into the ways in which the healthcare system in the province of Mendoza both expanded and became increasingly professionalized from the late 19th to early 20th century. We explore how these factors, along with the predominant social representations of disease that permeated the discourses of governing elites, influenced public policy aimed at combating the diseases of the time. To that end, we consulted a wide range of written documents and photographic material that allowed us to analyze changes in discourse as well as public policy.

L'épidémiologie entre le terrain des épidémies et l'approche populationnelle, XIX-XXe siècle.

TITLE: L'épidémiologie entre le terrain des épidémies et l'approche populationnelle, XIX-XXe siècle. ABSTRACT: L'émergence d'une épidémiologie moderne est fréquemment associée au basculement de la discipline, d'une science des épidémies vers une science des populations. L'avènement et le développement d'une épidémiologie fondée sur une approche statistique et mathématique n'exclut cependant pas la persistance d'une épidémiologie sur le terrain des épidémies, dans le sillage de l'hygiène publique et de la bactériologie triomphante du tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles. De plus, l'histoire de l'épidémiologie ne saurait être cantonnée à une histoire de savoirs scientifiques ou de savoir-faire techniques et organisationnels. Elle doit intégrer, plus sans doute encore que d'autres branches de la médecine, les dimensions économiques et politiques qui participèrent à l'institutionnalisation et au développement de la discipline et à son inscription dans les processus de décision.

Early-life conditions and adult mortality decline in Dutch cohorts born 1812-1921.

Mounting evidence suggests that early-life conditions have an enduring effect on an individual's mortality risks as an adult. The contribution of improvements in early-life conditions to the overall decline in adult mortality, however, remains a debated issue. We provide an estimate of the contribution of improvements in early-life conditions to mortality decline after age 30 in Dutch cohorts born between 1812 and 1921. We used two proxies for early-life conditions: median height and early-childhood mortality. We estimate that improvements in early-life conditions contributed more than five years or about a third to the rise in women's life expectancy at age 30. Improvements in early-life conditions contributed almost three years or more than a quarter to the rise in men's life expectancy at age 30. Height appears to be the more important of the two proxies for early-life conditions.

Research Investments in Global Health: A Systematic Analysis of UK Infectious Disease Research Funding and Global Health Metrics, 1997-2013.

BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases account for a significant global burden of disease and substantial investment in research and development. This paper presents a systematic assessment of research investments awarded to UK institutions and global health metrics assessing disease burden. METHODS: We systematically sourced research funding data awarded from public and philanthropic organisations between 1997 and 2013. We screened awards for relevance to infection and categorised data by type of science, disease area and specific pathogen. Investments were compared with mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLD) across three time points. FINDINGS: Between 1997-2013, there were 7398 awards with a total investment of £3.7 billion. An increase in research funding across 2011-2013 was observed for most disease areas, with notable exceptions being sexually transmitted infections and sepsis research where funding decreased. Most funding remains for pre-clinical research (£2.2 billion, 59.4%). Relative to global mortality, DALYs and YLDs, acute hepatitis C, leishmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis received comparatively high levels of funding. Pneumonia, shigellosis, pertussis, cholera and syphilis were poorly funded across all health metrics. Tuberculosis (TB) consistently attracts relatively less funding than HIV and malaria. INTERPRETATION: Most infections have received increases in research investment, alongside decreases in global burden of disease in 2013. The UK demonstrates research strengths in some neglected tropical diseases such as African trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis, but syphilis, cholera, shigellosis and pneumonia remain poorly funded relative to their global burden. Acute hepatitis C appears well funded but the figures do not adequately take into account projected future chronic burdens for this condition. These findings can help to inform global policymakers on resource allocation for research investment.

Declining Mortality Inequality within Cities during the Health Transition.

In the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, large cities had extremely high death rates from infectious disease. Within major cities such as New York City and Philadelphia, there was significant variation at any point in time in the mortality rate across neighborhoods. Between 1900 and 1930 neighborhood mortality convergence took place in New York City and Philadelphia. We document these trends and discuss their consequences for neighborhood quality of life dynamics and the economic incidence of who gains from effective public health interventions.

"To rid oneself of the uninvited guest": Robert Koch, Sergei Winogradsky and competing styles of practice in medical microbiology.

Does an infectious disease have one, singular pathogenic cause, or many interacting causes? In the discipline of medical microbiology, there is no definitive theoretical answer to this question: there, the conditions of aetiological possibility exist in a curious tension. Ever since the late 19th century, the "germ theory of disease"­"one disease, one cause"­ has co-existed with a much less well known theory of "multifactorality"­"one disease, many interacting causes". And yet, in practice, it is always a singular and never a multifactorial aetiology that emerges once the pathogenic world is brought into the field of medical perception. This paper seeks to understand why. Performing a detailed, genealogical reading of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, it foregrounds a set of links that connect the practical diagnostic tools at work within contemporary, 21st century laboratories to the philosophical assumptions at work within late-19th century understandings of the "germ theory of disease".

[Social-sanitary situation in Marañón's work in the context of the fight against infectious diseases]. / La cuestión sociosanitaria en la obra de Marañón en el contexto de la lucha contra las enfermedades infecciosas.

Gregorio Marañón y Posadillo (1887-1960), played a leading role in the birth of endocrinology in Spain as is well known. However, his medical work included other important and significant fields. Thus, it was especially in the 1910s and 1920s, when Marañón dealt with the social-sanitary situation in madrid probably due to his professional attachment to the treatment of several infectious diseases and epidemic outbreaks. Actually, since 1911 onwards, he was in charge of the wards of infectious diseases in the Hospital General de Madrid where he had the opportunity of treating an important number of patients suffering from this type of pathology and, as a consequence, in the following years he published several articles in medical journals and presented in the Royal Academy of Medicine in Spain, some reports on infectious diseases and the Spanish health and social conditions at the time. This paper try to analyze this field of Marañón's social and scientific activity.