Las epidemias en La Pampa (Argentina), en perspectiva histórica* / The epidemics in La Pampa (Argentina), from a historical perspective

Resumen Este artículo describe el inicio de las preocupaciones sanitarias vinculadas a las epidemias ocurridas durante el siglo XX en La Pampa, provincia argentina. Las epidemias, como las de la viruela, fueron un estímulo para estas políticas que frecuentemente tuvieron origen en Buenos Aires, la capital del país. El contagio de muchas epidemias dependía de carencias de infraestructura: agua, desagüe y desecho adecuado de basuras, de la ausencia de un número suficiente de trabajadores de salud, de la presencia de vectores transmisores de enfermedades como los mosquitos y, en última instancia, de la pobreza. La experiencia histórica descrita en este texto resalta la importancia de analizar el impacto del SARS-CoV-2 más allá de las grandes ciudades.

Abstract This article describes the emergence of health concerns relating to the epidemics that occurred during the twentieth century in La Pampa, a province in Argentina. Epidemics such as smallpox drove such policies, which frequently originated in Buenos Aires, the country's capital. The spread of many epidemics was due to shortages: water, sewage and adequate refuse disposal, an insufficient number of health care workers, the presence of disease transmission vectors such as mosquitos, and, ultimately, poverty. The historical experience described in this text highlights the importance of analyzing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the big cities.

[The epidemics in La Pampa (Argentina), from a historical perspective]. / Las epidemias en La Pampa (Argentina), en perspectiva histórica.

This article describes the emergence of health concerns relating to the epidemics that occurred during the twentieth century in La Pampa, a province in Argentina. Epidemics such as smallpox drove such policies, which frequently originated in Buenos Aires, the country's capital. The spread of many epidemics was due to shortages: water, sewage and adequate refuse disposal, an insufficient number of health care workers, the presence of disease transmission vectors such as mosquitos, and, ultimately, poverty. The historical experience described in this text highlights the importance of analyzing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the big cities.

Este artículo describe el inicio de las preocupaciones sanitarias vinculadas a las epidemias ocurridas durante el siglo XX en La Pampa, provincia argentina. Las epidemias, como las de la viruela, fueron un estímulo para estas políticas que frecuentemente tuvieron origen en Buenos Aires, la capital del país. El contagio de muchas epidemias dependía de carencias de infraestructura: agua, desagüe y desecho adecuado de basuras, de la ausencia de un número suficiente de trabajadores de salud, de la presencia de vectores transmisores de enfermedades como los mosquitos y, en última instancia, de la pobreza. La experiencia histórica descrita en este texto resalta la importancia de analizar el impacto del SARS-CoV-2 más allá de las grandes ciudades.

Environmental DNA reveals arboreal cityscapes at the Ancient Maya Center of Tikal.

Tikal, a major city of the ancient Maya world, has been the focus of archaeological research for over a century, yet the interactions between the Maya and the surrounding Neotropical forests remain largely enigmatic. This study aimed to help fill that void by using a powerful new technology, environmental DNA analysis, that enabled us to characterize the site core vegetation growing in association with the artificial reservoirs that provided the city water supply. Because the area has no permanent water sources, such as lakes or rivers, these reservoirs were key to the survival of the city, especially during the population expansion of the Classic period (250-850 CE). In the absence of specific evidence, the nature of the vegetation surrounding the reservoirs has been the subject of scientific hypotheses and artistic renderings for decades. To address these hypotheses we captured homologous sequences of vascular plant DNA extracted from reservoir sediments by using a targeted enrichment approach involving 120-bp genetic probes. Our samples encompassed the time before, during and after the occupation of Tikal (1000 BCE-900 CE). Results indicate that the banks of the ancient reservoirs were primarily fringed with native tropical forest vegetation rather than domesticated species during the Maya occupation.

Water and the death of ambition in global health, c.1970-1990.

Economic development and good health depended on access to clean water and sanitation. Therefore, because economic development and good health depended on access to clean water and sanitation, beginning in the early 1970s the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), and others began a period of sustained interest in developing both for the billions without either. During the 1980s, two massive and wildly ambitious projects showed what was possible. The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade and the Blue Nile Health Project aimed for nothing less than the total overhaul of the way water was developed. This was, according to the WHO, "development in the spirit of social justice."

Water and the death of ambition in global health, c. 1970-1990 / A água e o fim da ambição na saúde global, c. 1970-1990

Abstract Economic development and good health depended on access to clean water and sanitation. Therefore, because economic development and good health depended on access to clean water and sanitation, beginning in the early 1970s the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), and others began a period of sustained interest in developing both for the billions without either. During the 1980s, two massive and wildly ambitious projects showed what was possible. The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade and the Blue Nile Health Project aimed for nothing less than the total overhaul of the way water was developed. This was, according to the WHO, "development in the spirit of social justice."

Resumo Crescimento econômico e boa saúde dependem de acesso a saneamento e água limpa. Assim, o Banco Mundial, a Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) e outros órgãos, a partir do início da década de 1970, inauguraram um período de contínuo interesse no desenvolvimento de ambos para bilhões de pessoas desprovidas de tais necessidades. Durante a década de 1980, dois projetos monumentais e extremamente ambiciosos demonstraram o que era viável fazer. A International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade e o Blue Nile Health Project visavam à total reestruturação do modelo de desenvolvimento da água. Tratava-se, segundo a OMS, do "desenvolvimento do espírito de justiça social".

Chain effects of clean water: The Mills-Reincke phenomenon in early 20th-century Japan.

This study explores the validity of chain effects of clean water, which are known as the "Mills-Reincke phenomenon," in early 20-century Japan. Recent studies have reported that water purifications systems are responsible for huge contributions to human capital. Although some studies have investigated the instantaneous effects of water-supply systems in pre-war Japan, little is known about the chain effects of these systems. By analyzing city-level cause-specific mortality data from 1922 to 1940, we find that a decline in typhoid deaths by one per 1000 people decreased the risk of death due to non-waterborne diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia by 0.742-2.942 per 1000 people. Our finding suggests that the observed Mills-Reincke phenomenon could have resulted in the relatively rapid decline in the mortality rate in early 20-century Japan.

"Back to the Future": Time for a Renaissance of Public Health Engineering.

Public health has always been, and remains, an interdisciplinary field, and engineering was closely aligned with public health for many years. Indeed, the branch of engineering that has been known at various times as sanitary engineering, public health engineering, or environmental engineering was integral to the emergence of public health as a distinct discipline. However, in the United States (U.S.) during the 20th century, the academic preparation and practice of this branch of engineering became largely separated from public health. Various factors contributed to this separation, including an evolution in leadership roles within public health; increasing specialization within public health; and the emerging environmental movement, which led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with its emphasis on the natural environment. In this paper, we consider these factors in turn. We also present a case study example of public health engineering in current practice in the U.S. that has had large-scale positive health impacts through improving water and sanitation services in Native American and Alaska Native communities. We also consider briefly how to educate engineers to work in public health in the modern world, and the benefits and challenges associated with that process. We close by discussing the global implications of public health engineering and the need to re-integrate engineering into public health practice and strengthen the connection between the two fields.

Trends of improved water and sanitation coverage around the globe between 1990 and 2010: inequality among countries and performance of official development assistance.

BACKGROUND: As the Millennium Development Goals ended, and were replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals, efforts have been made to evaluate the achievements and performance of official development assistance (ODA) in the health sector. In this study, we explore trends in the expansion of water and sanitation coverage in developing countries and the performance of ODA. DESIGN: We explored inequality across developing countries by income level, and investigated how ODA for water and sanitation was committed by country, region, and income level. Changes in inequality were tested via slope changes by investigating the interaction of year and income level with a likelihood ratio test. A random effects model was applied according to the results of the Hausman test. RESULTS: The slope of the linear trend between economic level and sanitation coverage has declined over time. However, a random effects model suggested that the change in slope across years was not significant (e.g. for the slope change between 2000 and 2010: likelihood ratio χ2 = 2.49, probability > χ2 = 0.1146). A similar pro-rich pattern across developing countries and a non-significant change in the slope associated with different economic levels were demonstrated for water coverage. Our analysis shows that the inequality of water and sanitation coverage among countries across the world has not been addressed effectively during the past decade. Our findings demonstrate that the countries with the least coverage persistently received far less ODA per capita than did countries with much more extensive water and sanitation coverage, suggesting that ODA for water and sanitation is poorly targeted. CONCLUSION: The most deprived countries should receive more attention for water and sanitation improvements from the world health community. A strong political commitment to ODA targeting the countries with the least coverage is needed at the global level.

[First municipal sanitary stations in Russia: history and main activities (to the 125th anniversary since foundation)].

First municipal sanitary stations in Russia were founded in 1891 in the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg. They were financed by municipal public self-governments. With performing essential laboratory tests and studies, stations were an important element of the organization of sanitary inspection in cities. In the article there is considered the history of the creation offirst sanitary stations and main directions of their activity: control in the sphere offood trade and in the sphere of municipal water supply.

The impact of water supply and sanitation on infant mortality: Individual-level evidence from Tartu, Estonia, 1897-1900.

Evidence from a number of historical studies has demonstrated a strong impact of the provision of clean water on mortality risks, while no clear effect has been reported in others. We investigated the relationship between water supply, sanitation, and infant survival in Tartu, a university town in Estonia, 1897-1900. Based on data from parish registers, which were linked to the first census of the Russian Empire, the analysis reveals a clear disadvantage for infants in households using surface water, compared with families that acquired water from groundwater or artesian wells. The impact is stronger in the later stages of infancy. Competing-risk analysis shows that the effect is more pronounced for deaths caused by diseases of the digestive system. Our findings suggest that it may have been possible to improve the water supply, and consequently reduce infant mortality, before the introduction of piped water and sewage systems.

Dietary options and behavior suggested by plant biomarker evidence in an early human habitat.

The availability of plants and freshwater shapes the diets and social behavior of chimpanzees, our closest living relative. However, limited evidence about the spatial relationships shared between ancestral human (hominin) remains, edible resources, refuge, and freshwater leaves the influence of local resources on our species' evolution open to debate. Exceptionally well-preserved organic geochemical fossils--biomarkers--preserved in a soil horizon resolve different plant communities at meter scales across a contiguous 25,000 m(2) archaeological land surface at Olduvai Gorge from about 2 Ma. Biomarkers reveal hominins had access to aquatic plants and protective woods in a patchwork landscape, which included a spring-fed wetland near a woodland that both were surrounded by open grassland. Numerous cut-marked animal bones are located within the wooded area, and within meters of wetland vegetation delineated by biomarkers for ferns and sedges. Taken together, plant biomarkers, clustered bone debris, and hominin remains define a clear spatial pattern that places animal butchery amid the refuge of an isolated forest patch and near freshwater with diverse edible resources.

Contextual Factors Among Indiscriminate or Large Attacks on Food or Water Supplies, 1946-2015.

This research updates previous inventories of malicious attacks on food and water and includes data from 1946 through mid-2015. A systematic search of news reports, databases, and previous inventories of poisoning events was undertaken. Incidents that threatened or were intended to achieve direct harm to humans and that were either relatively large (more than 4 victims) or indiscriminate in intent or realization were included. Agents could be chemical, biological, or radionuclear. Reports of candidate incidents were subjected to systematic inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as validity analysis (not always clearly undertaken in previous inventories of such attacks). We summarize contextual aspects of the attacks that may be important for scenario prioritization, modelling, and defensive preparedness. Opportunity, and particularly access to dangerous agents, is key to most realized attacks. The most common motives and relative success rate in causing harm were very different between food and water attacks. The likelihood that people were made ill or died also varied by food or water mode and according to motive and opportunity for delivery of the hazardous agent. Deaths and illness associated with attacks during food manufacture and prior to sale have been fewer than those in some other contexts. Valuable opportunities for food defense improvements are identified in other contexts, especially food prepared in private or community settings.

[The role of sanitary conditions in the Apulian aquedoct construction policy in Bari]. / Il ruolo delle condizioni igienicosanitarie a Bari nella politica di costruzione dell'acquedotto pugliese.

In the city of Bari (Italy), during the 19th century, energetic political battles were carried out between the administrators and governors in order to ensure the population the primary resource for life: the water. In this town, there were no rivers or drinking water sources; the thirsty population drank from public and private cisterns for collecting rainwater. The condition of the pavement, poor maintenance of the reservoirs and the presence of absorbent cesspits in the vicinity of the wells were often the cause of pathogenic microorganisms' infiltration, such as viruses, bacteria or parasites, which were responsible for the most common digestive disorders. This paper aims to highlight the ties between political campaigns for the construction of the aqueduct and the recognition by the scientific community and governors of the causal link between certain diseases and infected water. The case of the city of Bari is exemplary because, according to the statistics of the causes of death, the hygienic conditions of the city changed parallel to the development of urban infrastructures, which radically intensified with the construction of the Apulian aqueduct in 1915, and the sewage system in 1920.

[The history of Odo Bujwid's research concerning hygienic assessment of water].

The present paper is dedicated to the work of Polish hygienist and bacteriologist Odo Bujwid (1857-1942), which referred to the problem of water quality assessment from the perspective of medicine, with particular emphasis given on the bacteriological, chemical and physical analysis of its quality, as well on the system and construct designs concerned with water supply and filtering adjustments, with particular emphasis on the experience coming from practical observations gained from cities of Krakow and Warsaw. The work focuses on the postulates formulated by Bujwid over several decades, from the 1880s onwards and in the interwar period ending, which were rooted in his own field research and laboratory observations combined with results of other researchers and constructs in that field.

The response of water quality variation in Poyang Lake (Jiangxi, People's Republic of China) to hydrological changes using historical data and DOM fluorescence.

Poyang Lake is a unique wetland system that has evolved in response to natural seasonal fluctuations in water levels. To better characterize the response of water quality to hydrological variation, historical data were analyzed in combination with dissolved organic matter (DOM) fluorescence samplings conducted in situ. Historical data showed that long-term changes in water quality are mainly controlled by the sewage inputs to Poyang Lake. Monthly changes in water quality recorded during 2008 and 2012 suggest that water level may be the most important factor for water quality during a hydrological year. DOM fluorescence samples were identified as three humic-like components (C1, C2, and C3) and a protein-like component (C4). These obvious compositional changes in DOM fluorescence were considered to be related to the hydrodynamic differences controlled by water regimen. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed higher C1 and C2 signals during a normal season than the wet season, whereas C3 was lower, and C4 was higher in the dry season than in the wet or normal seasons. From the open lake to the Yangtze River mouth, increased C3 component carried by backflows of the Yangtze River to the lake resulted in these unique variations of PCA factor 2 scores during September. These obvious compositional changes in DOM fluorescence were considered to be related to the hydrodynamic differences controlled by water regimen. DOM fluorescence could be a proxy for capturing rapid changes in water quality and thereby provide an early warning signal for the quality of water supply.