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Saturday, September 28, 2024

Communist society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of communism. A communist society is characterized by common ownership of the means of production with free access to the articles of consumption and is classless, stateless, and moneyless, implying the end of the exploitation of labour.

Communism is a specific stage of socioeconomic development predicated upon a superabundance of material wealth, which is postulated to arise from advances in production technology and corresponding changes in the social relations of production. This would allow for distribution based on needs and social relations based on freely-associated individuals. The term communist society should be distinguished from the Western concept of the communist state, the latter referring to a state ruled by a party which professes a variation of Marxism–Leninism.

Xue Muqiao wrote that within the socialist mode of production there were several phases. Su Shaozhi and Feng Langrui article created two subdivisions within the socialist mode of production; the first phase was the transition from the capitalist mode of production to the socialist mode of production—the phase in which the proletariat seized power and set-up the dictatorship of the proletariat and in which undeveloped socialism was created. The second phase was advanced socialism; the socialism that Marx wrote about. The notion that socialism and Communism are distinct historical stages is alien to Karl Marx's work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death. It is said that Karl Marx distinguishes between two phases of marketless communism: an initial phase, with labor vouchers, and a higher phase, with free access.

Economic aspects

A communist economic system would be characterized by advanced productive technology that enables material abundance, which in turn would enable the free distribution of most or all economic output and the holding of the means of producing this output in common. In this respect communism is differentiated from socialism, which, out of economic necessity, restricts access to articles of consumption and services based on one's contribution.

In further contrast to previous economic systems, communism would be characterized by the holding of natural resources and the means of production in common as opposed to them being privately owned (as in the case of capitalism) or owned by public or cooperative organizations that similarly restrict their access (as in the case of socialism). In this sense, communism involves the "negation of property" insofar as there would be little economic rationale for exclusive control over production assets in an environment of material abundance.

The fully developed communist economic system is postulated to develop from a preceding socialist system. Marx held the view that socialism—a system based on social ownership of the means of production—would enable progress toward the development of fully developed communism by further advancing productive technology. Under socialism, with its increasing levels of automation, an increasing proportion of goods would be distributed freely.

Social aspects

Individuality, freedom and creativity

A communist society would free individuals from long working hours by first automating production to an extent that the average length of the working day is reduced and second by eliminating the exploitation inherent in the division between workers and owners. A communist system would thus free individuals from alienation in the sense of having one's life structured around survival (making a wage or salary in a capitalist system), which Karl Marx referred to as a transition from the "realm of necessity" to the "realm of freedom". As a result, a communist society is envisioned as being composed of an intellectually-inclined population with both the time and resources to pursue its creative hobbies and genuine interests, and to contribute to creative social wealth in this manner. Marx considered "true richness" to be the amount of time one has at his disposal to pursue one's creative passions. Marx's notion of communism is in this way radically individualistic.

In fact, the realm of freedom actually begins only where labor which is determined by necessity and mundane considerations ceases; thus in the very nature of things it lies beyond the sphere of actual material production.

Capital, Volume III, 1894

Marx's concept of the "realm of freedom" goes hand-in-hand with his idea of the ending of the division of labor, which would not be required in a society with highly automated production and limited work roles. In a communist society, economic necessity and relations would cease to determine cultural and social relations. As scarcity is eliminated, alienated labor would cease and people would be free to pursue their individual goals. Additionally, it is believed that the principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" could be fulfilled due to scarcity being non-existent.

Politics, law and governance

Marx and Engels maintained that a communist society would have no need for the state as it exists in contemporary capitalist society. The capitalist state mainly exists to enforce hierarchical economic relations, to enforce the exclusive control of property, and to regulate capitalistic economic activities—all of which would be non-applicable to a communist system.

Engels noted that in a socialist system the primary function of public institutions will shift from being about the creation of laws and the control of people into a technical role as an administrator of technical production processes, with a decrease in the scope of traditional politics as scientific administration overtakes the role of political decision-making. Communist society is characterized by democratic processes, not merely in the sense of electoral democracy, but in the broader sense of open and collaborative social and workplace environments.

Marx never clearly specified whether or not he thought a communist society would be just; other thinkers have speculated that he thought communism would transcend justice and create society without conflicts, thus, without the needs for rules of justice.

Transitional stages

Marx also wrote that between capitalist and communist society, there would be a transitory period known as the dictatorship of the proletariat. During this preceding phase of societal development, capitalist economic relationships would gradually be abolished and replaced with socialism. Natural resources would become public property, while all manufacturing centers and workplaces would become socially owned and democratically managed. Production would be organized by scientific assessment and planning, thus eliminating what Marx called the "anarchy in production". The development of the productive forces would lead to the marginalization of human labor to the highest possible extent, to be gradually replaced by automated labor.

Open-source and peer production

Many aspects of a communist economy have emerged in recent decades in the form of open-source software and hardware, where source code and thus the means of producing software is held in common and freely accessible to everyone; and to the processes of peer production where collaborative work processes produce freely available software that does not rely on monetary valuation.

Ray Kurzweil posits that the goals of communism will be realized by advanced technological developments in the 21st century, where the intersection of low manufacturing costs, material abundance and open-source design philosophies will enable the realization of the maxim "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

In Soviet ideology

The communist economic system was officially enumerated as the ultimate goal of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in its party platform. According to the 1986 Programme of the CPSU:

Communism is a classless social system with one form of public ownership of the means of production and with full social equality of all members of society. Under communism, the all-round development of people will be accompanied by the growth of the productive forces on the basis of continuous progress in science and technology, all the springs of social wealth will flow abundantly, and the great principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" will be implemented. Communism is a highly organised society of free, socially conscious working people a society in which public self-government will be established, a society in which labour for the good of society will become the prime vital requirement of everyone, a clearly recognised necessity, and the ability of each person will be employed to the greatest benefit of the people.

The material and technical foundation of communism presupposes the creation of those productive forces that open up opportunities for the full satisfaction of the reasonable requirements of society and the individual. All productive activities under communism will be based on the use of highly efficient technical facilities and technologies, and the harmonious interaction of man and nature will be ensured.

In the highest phase of communism the directly social character of labor and production will become firmly established. Through the complete elimination of the remnants of the old division of labor and the essential social differences associated with it, the process of forming a socially homogeneous society will be completed.

Communism signifies the transformation of the system of socialist self-government by the people, of socialist democracy into the highest form of organization of society: communist public self-government. With the maturation of the necessary socioeconomic and ideological preconditions and the involvement of all citizens in administration, the socialist state—given appropriate international conditions—will, as Lenin noted, increasingly become a transitional form "from a state to a non-state". The activities of state bodies will become non-political in nature, and the need for the state as a special political institution will gradually disappear.

The inalienable feature of the communist mode of life is a high level of consciousness, social activity, discipline, and self-discipline of members of society, in which observance of the uniform, generally accepted rules of communist conduct will become an inner need and habit of every person.

Communism is a social system under which the free development of each is a condition for the free development of all.

In Vladimir Lenin's political theory, a classless society would be a society controlled by the direct producers, organized to produce according to socially managed goals. Such a society, Lenin suggested, would develop habits that would gradually make political representation unnecessary, as the radically democratic nature of the Soviets would lead citizens to come to agree with the representatives' style of management. Only in this environment, Lenin suggested, could the state wither away, ushering in a period of stateless communism.

In Soviet ideology, Marx's concepts of the "lower and higher phases of communism" articulated in the Critique of the Gotha Program were reformulated as the stages of "socialism" and "communism". The Soviet state claimed to have begun the phase of "socialist construction" during the implementation of the first Five-Year Plans during the 1930s, which introduced a centrally planned, nationalized/collectivized economy. The 1962 Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, published under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, claimed that socialism had been firmly established in the USSR, and that the state would now progress to the "full-scale construction of communism", although this may be understood to refer to the "technical foundations" of communism more so than the withering away of the state and the division of labor per se. However, even in the final edition of its program before the party's dissolution, the CPSU did not claim to have fully established communism, instead claiming that the society was undergoing a very slow and gradual process of transition.

Fictional portrayals

Several works of utopian fiction have portrayed versions of a communist society. Some examples include: Assemblywomen (391 BC) by Aristophanes, an early piece of utopian satire which mocks Athenian democracy's excesses through the story of the Athenian women taking control of the government and instituting a proto-communist utopia;

The Law of Freedom in a Platform (1652) by Gerrard Winstanley, a radical communist vision of an ideal state; News from Nowhere (1892) by William Morris, describing a future society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production; Red Star (1908, Russian: Красная звезда), Alexander Bogdanov's 1908 science fiction novel about a communist society on Mars; and The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin, set between a pair of planets: one that like Earth today is dominated by private property, nation states, gender hierarchy, and war, and the other an anarchist society without private property.

The economy and society of the United Federation of Planets in the Star Trek franchise has been described as a communist society where material scarcity has been eliminated due to the wide availability of replicator technology that enables free distribution of output, where there is no need for money.

The Culture novels by Iain M Banks are centered on a communist post-scarcity economy where technology is advanced to such a degree that all production is automated, and there is no use for money or property (aside from personal possessions with sentimental value). Humans in the Culture are free to pursue their own interests in an open and socially-permissive society. The society has been described by some commentators as "communist-bloc" or "anarcho-communist". Banks' close friend and fellow science fiction writer Ken MacLeod has said that The Culture can be seen as a realization of Marx's communism, but adds that "however friendly he was to the radical left, Iain had little interest in relating the long-range possibility of utopia to radical politics in the here and now. As he saw it, what mattered was to keep the utopian possibility open by continuing technological progress, especially space development, and in the meantime to support whatever policies and politics in the real world were rational and humane."

Friday, September 27, 2024

Globalization and disease

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Globalization, the flow of information, goods, capital, and people across political and geographic boundaries, allows infectious diseases to rapidly spread around the world, while also allowing the alleviation of factors such as hunger and poverty, which are key determinants of global health. The spread of diseases across wide geographic scales has increased through history. Early diseases that spread from Asia to Europe were bubonic plague, influenza of various types, and similar infectious diseases.

In the current era of globalization, the world is more interdependent than at any other time. Efficient and inexpensive transportation has left few places inaccessible, and increased global trade in agricultural products has brought more and more people into contact with animal diseases that have subsequently jumped species barriers (see zoonosis).

Globalization intensified during the Age of Exploration, but trading routes had long been established between Asia and Europe, along which diseases were also transmitted. An increase in travel has helped spread diseases to natives of lands who had not previously been exposed. When a native population is infected with a new disease, where they have not developed antibodies through generations of previous exposure, the new disease tends to run rampant within the population.

Etiology, the modern branch of science that deals with the causes of infectious disease, recognizes five major modes of disease transmission: airborne, waterborne, bloodborne, by direct contact, and through vector (insects or other creatures that carry germs from one species to another). As humans began traveling overseas and across lands which were previously isolated, research suggests that diseases have been spread by all five transmission modes.

Travel patterns and globalization

The Age of Exploration generally refers to the period between the 15th and 17th centuries. During this time, technological advances in shipbuilding and navigation made it easier for nations to explore outside previous boundaries. Globalization has had many benefits, for example, new products to Europeans were discovered, such as tea, silk and sugar when Europeans developed new trade routes around Africa to India and the Spice Islands, Asia, and eventually running to the Americas.

In addition to trading in goods, many nations began to trade in slavery. Trading in slaves was another way by which diseases were carried to new locations and peoples, for instance, from sub-Saharan Africa to the Caribbean and the Americas. During this time, different societies began to integrate, increasing the concentration of humans and animals in certain places, which led to the emergence of new diseases as some jumped in mutation from animals to humans.

During this time sorcerers' and witch doctors' treatment of disease was often focused on magic and religion, and healing the entire body and soul, rather than focusing on a few symptoms like modern medicine. Early medicine often included the use of herbs and meditation. Based on archaeological evidence, some prehistoric practitioners in both Europe and South America used trephining, making a hole in the skull to release illness. Severe diseases were often thought of as supernatural or magical. The result of the introduction of Eurasian diseases to the Americas was that many more native peoples were killed by disease and germs than by the colonists' use of guns or other weapons. Scholars estimate that over a period of four centuries, epidemic diseases wiped out as much as 90 percent of the American indigenous populations.

Map with the main travels of the Age of Discovery (began in 15th century).

In Europe during the age of exploration, diseases such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis (TB) had already been introduced centuries before through trade with Asia and Africa. People had developed some antibodies to these and other diseases from the Eurasian continent. When the Europeans traveled to new lands, they carried these diseases with them. (Note: Scholars believe TB was already endemic in the Americas.) When such diseases were introduced for the first time to new populations of humans, the effects on the native populations were widespread and deadly. The Columbian Exchange, referring to Christopher Columbus's first contact with the native peoples of the Caribbean, began the trade of animals, and plants, and unwittingly began an exchange of diseases.

It was not until the 1800s that humans began to recognize the existence and role of germs and microbes in relation to disease. Although many thinkers had ideas about germs, it was not until French doctor Louis Pasteur spread his theory about germs, and the need for washing hands and maintaining sanitation (particularly in medical practice), that anyone listened. Many people were quite skeptical, but on May 22, 1881, Pasteur persuasively demonstrated the validity of his germ theory of disease with an early example of vaccination. The anthrax vaccine was administered to 25 sheep while another 25 were used as a control. On May 31, 1881, all of the sheep were exposed to anthrax. While every sheep in the control group died, each of the vaccinated sheep survived. Pasteur's experiment would become a milestone in disease prevention. His findings, in conjunction with other vaccines that followed, changed the way globalization affected the world.

Effects of globalization on disease in the modern world

Modern modes of transportation allow more people and products to travel around the world at a faster pace; they also open the airways to the transcontinental movement of infectious disease vectors. One example is the West Nile virus. It is believed that this disease reached the United States via "mosquitoes that crossed the ocean by riding in airplane wheel wells and arrived in New York City in 1999." With the use of air travel, people are able to go to foreign lands, contract a disease and not have any symptoms of illness until after they get home, and having exposed others to the disease along the way. Another example of the potency of modern modes of transportation in increasing the spread of disease is the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Global transportation, back in the early 20th century, was able to spread a virus because the network of transmittance and trade was already global. The virus was found on crew members of ships and trains, and all the infected employees spread the virus everywhere they traveled. As a result, almost 50-100 million people died of this global transmission.

As medicine has progressed, many vaccines and cures have been developed for some of the worst diseases (plague, syphilis, typhus, cholera, malaria) that people develop. But, because the evolution of disease organisms is very rapid, even with vaccines, there is difficulty providing full immunity to many diseases. Since vaccines are made partly from the virus itself, when an unknown virus is introduced into the environment, it takes time for the medical community to formulate a curable vaccine. The lack of operational and functional research and data, which provide a quicker and more strategized pathway to a reliable vaccine, makes for a lengthy vaccine development timeline. Even though frameworks are set up and preparations plans are utilized to decrease the COVID-19 cases, a vaccine is the only way to ensure complete immunization. Some systems like the IIS, Immunization Information System, help give preliminary structure for quick responses to outbreaks and unknown viruses. These systems employ past data and research-based on modern world vaccine development successes. Finding vaccines at all for some diseases remains extremely difficult. Without vaccines, the global world remains vulnerable to infectious diseases.

Evolution of disease presents a major threat in modern times. For example, the current "swine flu" or H1N1 virus is a new strain of an old form of flu, known for centuries as Asian flu based on its origin on that continent. From 1918 to 1920, a post-World War I global influenza epidemic killed an estimated 50–100 million peens, including half a million in the United States alone. H1N1 is a virus that has evolved from and partially combined with portions of avian, swine, and human flu.

Globalization has increased the spread of infectious diseases from South to North, but also the risk of non-communicable diseases by transmission of culture and behavior from North to South. It is important to target and reduce the spread of infectious diseases in developing countries. However, addressing the risk factors of non-communicable diseases and lifestyle risks in the South that cause disease, such as use or consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy foods, is important as well.

Even during pandemics, it is vital to recognize economic globalization in being a catalyst in the spread of the coronavirus. Economic factors are especially damaged by increased global lockdown regulations and trade blockades. As transportation globalized, economies expanded. Internalized economies saw great financial opportunities in global trade. With increased interconnectivity among economies and the globalization of the world economy, the spread of the coronavirus maximized the potentiality of global recessions. The coronavirus pandemic caused many economic disruptions, which caused a functional disconnect in the supply chain and the flow of goods. As transportation modes are relevant to the spread of infectious diseases, it is important to also recognize the economy being the motor of this globalized transmission system.

Specific diseases

Plague

Contemporary engraving of Naples during the Naples Plague in 1656

Bubonic plague is a variant of the deadly flea-borne disease plague, which is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, that devastated human populations beginning in the 14th century. Bubonic plague is primarily spread by fleas that lived on the black rat, an animal that originated in South Asia and spread to Europe by the 6th century. It became common to cities and villages, traveling by ship with explorers. A human would become infected after being bitten by an infected flea. The first sign of an infection of bubonic plague is swelling of the lymph nodes, and the formation of buboes. These buboes would first appear in the groin or armpit area, and would often ooze pus or blood. Eventually infected individuals would become covered with dark splotches caused by bleeding under the skin. The symptoms would be accompanied by a high fever, and within four to seven days of infection, more than half of the affected would die.

The first recorded outbreak of plague occurred in China in the 1330s, a time when China was engaged in substantial trade with western Asia and Europe. The plague reached Europe in October 1347. It was thought to have been brought into Europe through the port of Messina, Sicily, by a fleet of Genoese trading ships from Kaffa, a seaport on the Crimean peninsula. When the ship left port in Kaffa, many of the inhabitants of the town were dying, and the crew was in a hurry to leave. By the time the fleet reached Messina, all the crew were either dead or dying; the rats that took passage with the ship slipped unnoticed to shore and carried the disease with them and their fleas.

Within Europe, the plague struck port cities first, then followed people along both sea and land trade routes. It raged through Italy into France and the British Isles. It was carried over the Alps into Switzerland, and eastward into Hungary and Russia. For a time during the 14th and 15th centuries, the plague would recede. Every ten to twenty years, it would return. Later epidemics, however, were never as widespread as the earlier outbreaks, when 60% of the population died.

Worldwide distribution of plague-infected animals, 1998

The third plague pandemic emerged in Yunnan province of China in the mid-nineteenth century. It spread east and south through China, reaching Guangzhou (Canton) and Hong Kong in 1894, where it entered the global maritime trade routes. Plague reached Singapore and Bombay in 1896. China lost an estimated 2 million people between plague's reappearance in the mid-nineteenth century and its retreat in the mid-twentieth. In India, between 1896 and the 1920s, plague claimed an estimated 12 million lives, most in the Bombay province. Plague spread into the countries around the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. From China it also spread eastward to Japan, the Philippines and Hawaii, and in Central Asia it spread overland into the Russian territories from Siberia to Turkistan. By 1901 there had been outbreaks of plague on every continent, and new plague reservoirs would produce regular outbreaks over the ensuing decades.

Measles

Measles is a highly contagious airborne virus spread by contact with infected oral and nasal fluids. When a person with measles coughs or sneezes, they release microscopic particles into the air. During the 4- to 12-day incubation period, an infected individual shows no symptoms, but as the disease progresses, the following symptoms appear: runny nose, cough, red eyes, extremely high fever and a rash.

Measles is an endemic disease, meaning that it has been continually present in a community, and many people developed resistance. In populations that have not been exposed to measles, exposure to the new disease can be devastating. In 1529, a measles outbreak in Cuba killed two-thirds of the natives who had previously survived smallpox. Two years later measles was responsible for the deaths of half the indigenous population of Honduras, and ravaged Mexico, Central America, and the Inca civilization.

Historically, measles was very prevalent throughout the world, as it is highly contagious. According to the National Immunization Program, 90% of people were infected with measles by age 15, acquiring immunity to further outbreaks. Until a vaccine was developed in 1963, measles was considered to be deadlier than smallpox. Vaccination reduced the number of reported occurrences by 98%. Major epidemics have predominantly occurred in unvaccinated populations, particularly among nonwhite Hispanic and African American children under 5 years old. In 2000 a group of experts determined that measles was no longer endemic in the United States. The majority of cases that occur are among immigrants from other countries.

Typhus

Typhus is caused by rickettsia, which is transmitted to humans through lice. The main vector for typhus is the rat flea. Flea bites and infected flea feaces in the respiratory tract are the two most common methods of transmission. In areas where rats are not common, typhus may also be transmitted through cat and opossum fleas. The incubation period of typhus is 7–14 days. The symptoms start with a fever, then headache, rash, and eventually stupor. Spontaneous recovery occurs in 80–90% of victims.

The first outbreak of typhus was recorded in 1489. Historians believe that troops from the Balkans, hired by the Spanish army, brought it to Spain with them. By 1490 typhus traveled from the eastern Mediterranean into Spain and Italy, and by 1494, it had swept across Europe. From 1500 to 1914, more soldiers were killed by typhus than from all the combined military actions during that time. It was a disease associated with the crowded conditions of urban poverty and refugees as well. Finally, during World War I, governments instituted preventative delousing measures among the armed forces and other groups, and the disease began to decline. The creation of antibiotics has allowed disease to be controlled within two days of taking a 200 mg dose of tetracycline.

Syphilis

An early medical illustration of people with syphilis, Vienna, 1498

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that causes open sores, delirium and rotting skin, and is characterized by genital ulcers. Syphilis can also do damage to the nervous system, brain and heart. The disease can be transmitted from mother to child.

The origins of syphilis are unknown, and some historians argue that it descended from a twenty-thousand-year-old African zoonosis. Other historians place its emergence in the New World, arguing that the crews of Columbus's ships first brought the disease to Europe. The first recorded case of syphilis occurred in Naples in 1495, after King Charles VIII of France besieged the city of Naples, Italy. The soldiers, and the prostitutes who followed their camps, came from all corners of Europe. When they went home, they took the disease with them and spread it across the continent.

Smallpox

Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the Variola virus. There are four variations of smallpox; variola major, variola minor, haemorrhagic, and malignant, with the most common being variola major and variola minor. Symptoms of the disease including hemorrhaging, blindness, back ache, vomiting, which generally occur shortly after the 12- to 17-day incubation period. The virus begins to attack skin cells, and eventually leads to an eruption of pimples that cover the whole body. As the disease progresses, the pimples fill up with pus or merge. This merging results in a sheet that can detach the bottom layer from the top layer of skin. The disease is easily transmitted through airborne pathways (coughing, sneezing, and breathing), as well as through contaminated bedding, clothing or other fabrics.

It is believed that smallpox first emerged over 3000 years ago, probably in India or Egypt. There have been numerous recorded devastating epidemics throughout the world, with high losses of life.

Smallpox was a common disease in Eurasia in the 15th century, and was spread by explorers and invaders. After Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola during his second voyage in 1493, local people started to die of a virulent infection. Before the smallpox epidemic started, more than one million indigenous people had lived on the island; afterward, only ten thousand had survived.

During the 16th century, Spanish soldiers introduced smallpox by contact with natives of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. A devastating epidemic broke out among the indigenous people, killing thousands.

In 1617, smallpox reached Massachusetts, probably brought by earlier explorers to Nova Scotia, Canada." By 1638 the disease had broken out among people in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1721 people fled the city after an outbreak, but the residents spread the disease to others throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Smallpox broke out in six separate epidemics in the United States through 1968.

The smallpox vaccine was developed in 1798 by Edward Jenner. By 1979 the disease had been completely eradicated, with no new outbreaks. The WHO stopped providing vaccinations and by 1986, vaccination was no longer necessary to anyone in the world except in the event of future outbreak.

Leprosy

New cases of leprosy in 2016

Leprosy, also known as Hansen's Disease, is caused by a bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae. It is a chronic disease with an incubation period of up to five years. Symptoms often include irritation or erosion of the skin, and effects on the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract and eyes. The most common sign of leprosy are pale reddish spots on the skin that lack sensation.

Leprosy originated in India, more than four thousand years ago. It was prevalent in ancient societies in China, Egypt and India, and was transmitted throughout the world by various traveling groups, including Roman Legionnaires, Crusaders, Spanish conquistadors, Asian seafarers, European colonists, and Arab, African, and American slave traders. Some historians believe that Alexander the Great's troops brought leprosy from India to Europe during the 3rd century BC. With the help of the crusaders and other travelers, leprosy reached epidemic proportions by the 13th century.

Once detected, leprosy can be cured using multi-drug therapy, composed of two or three antibiotics, depending on the type of leprosy. In 1991 the World Health Assembly began an attempt to eliminate leprosy. By 2005 116 of 122 countries were reported to be free of leprosy.

Malaria

Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009

On Nov. 6, 1880 Alphonse Laveran discovered that malaria (then called "Marsh Fever") was a protozoan parasite, and that mosquitoes carry and transmit malaria. Malaria is a protozoan infectious disease that is generally transmitted to humans by mosquitoes between dusk and dawn. The European variety, known as "vivax" after the Plasmodium vivax parasite, causes a relatively mild, yet chronically aggravating disease. The west African variety is caused by the sporozoan parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and results in a severely debilitating and deadly disease.

Malaria was common in parts of the world where it has now disappeared, as the vast majority of Europe (disease of African descent are particularly diffused in the Empire romain) and North America . In some parts of England, mortality due to malaria was comparable to that of sub-Saharan Africa today. Although William Shakespeare was born at the beginning of a colder period called the "Little Ice Age", he knew enough ravages of this disease to include in eight parts. Plasmodium vivax lasted until 1958 in the polders of Belgium and the Netherlands. In the 1500s, it was the European settlers and their slaves who probably brought malaria on the American continent (we know that Columbus had this disease before his arrival in the new land). The Spanish Jesuit missionaries saw the Indians bordering on Lake Loxa Peru used the Cinchona bark powder to treat fevers. However, there is no reference to malaria in the medical literature of the Maya or Aztecs. The use of the bark of the "fever tree" was introduced into European medicine by Jesuit missionaries whose Barbabe Cobo who experimented in 1632 and also by exports, which contributed to the precious powder also being called "Jesuit powder". A study in 2012 of thousands of genetic markers for Plasmodium falciparum samples confirmed the African origin of the parasite in South America (Europeans themselves have been affected by this disease through Africa): it borrowed from the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-nineteenth the two main roads of the slave trade, the first leading to the north of South America (Colombia) by the Spanish, the second most leading south (Brazil) by Portugueses.

Parts of Third World countries are more affected by malaria than the rest of the world. For instance, many inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are affected by recurring attacks of malaria throughout their lives. In many areas of Africa, there is limited running water. The residents' use of wells and cisterns provides many sites for the breeding of mosquitoes and spread of the disease. Mosquitoes use areas of standing water like marshes, wetlands, and water drums to breed.

Tuberculosis

In 2007, the prevalence of TB per 100,000 people was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, and was also relatively high in Asian countries like India.

The bacterium that causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is generally spread when an infected person coughs and another person inhales the bacteria. Once inhaled TB frequently grows in the lungs, but can spread to any part of the body. Although TB is highly contagious, in most cases the human body is able to fend off the bacteria. But, TB can remain dormant in the body for years, and become active unexpectedly. If and when the disease does become active in the body, it can multiply rapidly, causing the person to develop many symptoms including cough (sometimes with blood), night sweats, fever, chest pains, loss of appetite and loss of weight. This disease can occur in both adults and children and is especially common among those with weak or undeveloped immune systems.

Tuberculosis (TB) has been one of history's greatest killers, taking the lives of over 3 million people annually. It has been called the "white plague". According to the WHO, approximately fifty percent of people infected with TB today live in Asia. It is the most prevalent, life-threatening infection among AIDS patients. It has increased in areas where HIV seroprevalence is high.

Air travel and the other methods of travel which have made global interaction easier, have increased the spread of TB across different societies. Luckily, the BCG vaccine was developed, which prevents TB meningitis and miliary TB in childhood. But, the vaccine does not provide substantial protection against the more virulent forms of TB found among adults. Most forms of TB can be treated with antibiotics to kill the bacteria. The two antibiotics most commonly used are rifampicin and isoniazid. There are dangers, however, of a rise of antibiotic-resistant TB. The TB treatment regimen is lengthy, and difficult for poor and disorganized people to complete, increasing resistance of bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant TB is also known as "multidrug-resistant tuberculosis." "Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis" is a pandemic that is on the rise. Patients with MDR-TB are mostly young adults who are not infected with HIV or have other existing illness. Due to the lack of health care infrastructure in underdeveloped countries, there is a debate as to whether treating MDR-TB will be cost effective or not. The reason is the high cost of "second-line" antituberculosis medications. It has been argued that the reason the cost of treating patients with MDR-TB is high is because there has been a shift in focus in the medical field, in particular the rise of AIDS, which is now the world's leading infectious cause of death. Nonetheless, it is still important to put in the effort to help and treat patients with "multidrug-resistant tuberculosis" in poor countries.

HIV/AIDS

Estimated HIV/AIDS prevalence among young adults (15-49) by country as of 2008

HIV and AIDS are among the newest and deadliest diseases. According to the World Health Organization, it is unknown where the HIV virus originated, but it appeared to move from animals to humans. It may have been isolated within many groups throughout the world. It is believed that HIV arose from another, less harmful virus, that mutated and became more virulent. The first two AIDS/HIV cases were detected in 1981. As of 2013, an estimated 1.3 million persons in the United States were living with HIV or AIDS, almost 110,000 in the UK and an estimated 35 million people worldwide are living with HIV".

Despite efforts in numerous countries, awareness and prevention programs have not been effective enough to reduce the numbers of new HIV cases in many parts of the world, where it is associated with high mobility of men, poverty and sexual mores among certain populations. Uganda has had an effective program, however. Even in countries where the epidemic has a very high impact, such as Eswatini and South Africa, a large proportion of the population do not believe they are at risk of becoming infected. Even in countries such as the UK, there is no significant decline in certain at-risk communities. 2014 saw the greatest number of new diagnoses in gay men, the equivalent of nine being diagnosed a day.

Initially, HIV prevention methods focused primarily on preventing the sexual transmission of HIV through behaviour change. The ABC Approach - "Abstinence, Be faithful, Use a Condom". However, by the mid-2000s, it became evident that effective HIV prevention requires more than that and that interventions need to take into account underlying socio-cultural, economic, political, legal and other contextual factors.

Ebola

Cases of Ebola fever in Africa since 1976

The Ebola outbreak, which was the 26th outbreak since 1976, started in Guinea in March 2014. The WHO warned that the number of Ebola patients could rise to 20,000, and said that it used $489m (£294m) to contain Ebola within six to nine months. The outbreak was accelerating. Medecins sans Frontieres has just opened a new Ebola hospital in Monrovia, and after one week it is already a capacity of 120 patients. It said that the number of patients seeking treatment at its new Monrovia centre was increasing faster than they could handle both in terms of the number of beds and the capacity of the staff, adding that it was struggling to cope with the caseload in the Liberian capital. Lindis Hurum, MSF's emergency coordinator in Monrovia, said that it was humanitarian emergency and they needed a full-scale humanitarian response. Brice de la Vinge, MSF director of operations, said that it was not until five months after the declaration of the Ebola outbreak that serious discussions started about international leadership and coordination, and said that it was not acceptable.

Leptospirosis

Leptospirosis, also known as the "rat fever" or "field fever" is an infection caused by Leptospira. Symptoms can range from none to mild such as headaches, muscle pains, and fevers; to severe with bleeding from the lungs or meningitis. Leptospira is transmitted by both wild and domestic animals, most commonly by rodents. It is often transmitted by animal urine or by water or soil containing animal urine coming into contact with breaks in the skin, eyes, mouth, or nose. The countries with the highest reported incidence are located in the Asia-Pacific region (Seychelles, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand) with incidence rates over 10 per 1000,000 people s well as in Latin America and the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, El Salvador, Uruguay, Cuba, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) However, the rise in global travel and eco-tourism  has led to dramatic changes in the epidemiology of leptospirosis, and travelers from around the world have become exposed to the threat of leptospirosis. Despite decreasing prevalence of leptospirosis in endemic regions, previously non-endemic countries are now reporting increasing numbers of cases due to recreational exposure  International travelers engaged in adventure sports are directly exposed to numerous infectious agents in the environment and now comprise a growing proportion of cases worldwide.

Disease X

The World Health Organization (WHO) proposed the name Disease X in 2018 to focus on preparations and predictions of a major pandemic.

COVID-19

The virus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China. It was first detected in December 2019, which is why scientists called it COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019). This outbreak has since caused a health issue in the city of Wuhan, China which evolved into a global pandemic. The World Health Organization officially declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

As of May 2020, scientists believe that COVID-19, a zoonotic disease, is linked to the wet markets in China. Epidemiologists have also warned of the virus's contagiousness. Specialists have declared that the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is still unknown. The generally accepted notion among virologists and experts is that the action of inhaling droplets from an infected person is most likely the way SARS-CoV-2 is spreading. As more people travel and more goods and capital are traded globally, COVID-19 cases started to slowly appear all over the world.

Some of the symptoms that COVID-19 patients could experience is shortness of breath (which might be a sign of pneumonia), cough, fever, and diarrhea. The three most recorded and common symptoms are fever, tiredness, and coughing, as reported by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 is also categorized among the viruses that can show no symptoms in the carrier. Asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers transmitted the virus to many people which eventually did show symptoms, some being deadly.

The first number of cases was detected in Wuhan, China, the origin of the outbreak. On December 31, 2019, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced to the World Health Organization that the number of pneumonia cases that have been previously detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province is now under investigation. Proper identification of a novel coronavirus was developed and reported, making the pneumonia cases in China the first reported cases of COVID-19. As of November 25, 2021, there have been around 260 million confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world. Confirmed deaths as a result of COVID-19 is over 5 million globally. Over 235 million of the 260 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have successfully recovered. Countries showing lack of preparation and awareness in January and February 2020 are now reporting the highest numbers of COVID-19 cases. The United States leads the worldwide count with almost 49 million confirmed cases. Deaths in The United States have crossed 798,000, maintaining the highest death count of any country. Brazil, Russia, Spain, UK, and Italy have all suffered because of the increase in cases, leading to an impaired health system unable to attend to so many sick people at one time.

The first-ever confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States was in Washington State on January 21, 2020. It was a man who had just returned from China. Following this incident, on January 31, 2020, Trump announced that travel to and from China is restricted, effective on February 2, 2020. On March 11, 2020, Trump issues executive order to restrict travel from Europe, except for the UK and Ireland. On May 24, 2020, Trump bans travel from Brazil, as Brazil becomes the new center of the coronavirus pandemic. International restrictions were set to decrease international entities of entering a country, potentially carrying the virus. This is because governments understand that with the accessibility in travel and free trade, any person can travel and carry the virus to a new environment. Recommendations to U.S. travelers have been set by the State Department. As of March 19, 2020, some countries have been marked Level 4 "do not travel". The coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions have affected almost 93% of the global population. Increased travel restrictions effectively aid multilateral and bilateral health organizations to control the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Non-communicable disease

Globalization can benefit people with non-communicable diseases such as heart problems or mental health problems. Global trade and rules set forth by the World Trade Organization can actually benefit the health of people by making their incomes higher, allowing them to afford better health care. While it has to be admitted making many non-communicable diseases more likely as well. Also the national income of a country, mostly obtained by trading on the global market, is important because it dictates how much a government spends on health care for its citizens. It also has to be acknowledged that an expansion in the definition of disease often accompanies development, so the net effect is not clearly beneficial due to this and other effects of increased affluence. Metabolic syndrome is one obvious example. Although poorer countries have not yet experienced this and are still having the diseases listed above.

Economic globalization and disease

Globalization is multifaceted in implementation and is objective in the framework and systemic ideology. Infectious diseases spread mainly as a result of the modern globalization of many and almost all industries and sectors. Economic globalization is the interconnectivity of world economies and the interdependency of internal and external supply chains. With the advancement of science and technology, the possibility of economic globalization is enabled even more. Economic factors have been defined by global boundaries rather than national. The cost of activities of economic measures has been significantly decreased as a result of the advancements in the fields of technology and science, slowly creating an interconnected economy lacking centralized integration. As economies increase levels of integration and singularity within the partnership, any global financial and economic disruptions would cause a global recession. Collateral damage is further observed with the increase in integrated economic activity. Countries lean more on economic benefits than health benefits, which lead to a miscalculated and ill-reported health issue.

Tropical disease

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tropical diseases are diseases that are prevalent in or unique to tropical and subtropical regions. The diseases are less prevalent in temperate climates, due in part to the occurrence of a cold season, which controls the insect population by forcing hibernation. However, many were present in northern Europe and northern America in the 17th and 18th centuries before modern understanding of disease causation. The initial impetus for tropical medicine was to protect the health of colonial settlers, notably in India under the British Raj. Insects such as mosquitoes and flies are by far the most common disease carrier, or vector. These insects may carry a parasite, bacterium or virus that is infectious to humans and animals. Most often disease is transmitted by an insect bite, which causes transmission of the infectious agent through subcutaneous blood exchange. Vaccines are not available for most of the diseases listed here, and many do not have cures.

Human exploration of tropical rainforests, deforestation, rising immigration and increased international air travel and other tourism to tropical regions has led to an increased incidence of such diseases to non-tropical countries. Of particular concern is the habitat loss of reservoir host species.

Health programmes

In 1975 the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) was established to focus on neglected infectious diseases which disproportionately affect poor and marginalized populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, Central America and North South America. It was established at the World Health Organization, which is the executing agency, and is co-sponsored by the United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations Development Programme, the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

TDR's vision is to foster an effective global research effort on infectious diseases of poverty in which disease endemic countries play a pivotal role. It has a dual mission of developing new tools and strategies against these diseases, and to develop the research and leadership capacity in the countries where the diseases occur. The TDR secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland, but the work is conducted throughout the world through many partners and funded grants.

Some examples of work include helping to develop new treatments for diseases, such as ivermectin for onchocerciasis (river blindness); showing how packaging can improve use of artemesinin-combination treatment (ACT) for malaria; demonstrating the effectiveness of bednets to prevent mosquito bites and malaria; and documenting how community-based and community-led programmes increases distribution of multiple treatments. TDR history

The current TDR disease portfolio includes the following entries:

Other neglected tropical diseases

Additional neglected tropical diseases include:

Disease Causative Agent Comments
Hookworm Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus
Trichuriasis Trichuris trichiura
Treponematoses Treponema pallidum pertenue, Treponema pallidum endemicum, Treponema pallidum carateum, Treponema pallidum pallidum
Buruli ulcer Mycobacterium ulcerans
Dracunculiasis Dracunculus medinensis
Leptospirosis Leptospira
Strongyloidiasis Strongyloides stercoralis
Foodborne trematodiases Trematoda
Neurocysticercosis Taenia solium
Scabies Sarcoptes scabiei
Flavivirus Infections Yellow fever virus, West Nile virus, dengue virus, Tick-borne encephalitis virus, Zika virus

Some tropical diseases are very rare, but may occur in sudden epidemics, such as the Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever and the Marburg virus. There are hundreds of different tropical diseases which are less known or rarer, but that, nonetheless, have importance for public health.

Relation of climate to tropical diseases

The so-called "exotic" diseases in the tropics have long been noted both by travelers, explorers, etc., as well as by physicians. One obvious reason is that the hot climate present during all the year and the larger volume of rains directly affect the formation of breeding grounds, the larger number and variety of natural reservoirs and animal diseases that can be transmitted to humans (zoonosis), the largest number of possible insect vectors of diseases. It is possible also that higher temperatures may favor the replication of pathogenic agents both inside and outside biological organisms. Socio-economic factors may be also in operation, since most of the poorest nations of the world are in the tropics. Tropical countries like Brazil, which have improved their socio-economic situation and invested in hygiene, public health and the combat of transmissible diseases have achieved dramatic results in relation to the elimination or decrease of many endemic tropical diseases in their territory.

Climate change, global warming caused by the greenhouse effect, and the resulting increase in global temperatures, are possibly causing tropical diseases and vectors to spread to higher altitudes in mountainous regions, and to higher latitudes that were previously spared, such as the Southern United States, the Mediterranean area, etc. For example, in the Monteverde cloud forest of Costa Rica, global warming enabled Chytridiomycosis, a tropical disease, to flourish and thus force into decline amphibian populations of the Monteverde Harlequin frog. Here, global warming raised the heights of orographic cloud formation, and thus produced cloud cover that would facilitate optimum growth conditions for the implicated pathogen, B. dendrobatidis.

Prevention and treatment

Disability-adjusted life year for tropical diseases per 100,000 inhabitants. These include trypanosomiasis, chagas disease, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis.
  no data
  ≤100
  100–200
  200–300
  300–400
  400–500
  500–600
  600–700
  700–800
  800–900
  900–1000
  1000–1500
  ≥1500

Vector-borne diseases

Vectors are living organisms that pass disease between humans or from animal to human. The vector carrying the highest number of diseases is the mosquito, which is responsible for the tropical diseases dengue and malaria. Many different approaches have been taken to treat and prevent these diseases. NIH-funded research has produced genetically modify mosquitoes that are unable to spread diseases such as malaria. An issue with this approach is global accessibility to genetic engineering technology; Approximately 50% of scientists in the field do not have access to information on genetically modified mosquito trials being conducted.

Other prevention methods include:

  • Draining wetlands to reduce populations of insects and other vectors, or introducing natural predators of the vectors.
  • The application of insecticides and/or insect repellents to strategic surfaces such as clothing, skin, buildings, insect habitats, and bed nets.
  • The use of a mosquito net over a bed (also known as a "bed net") to reduce nighttime transmission, since certain species of tropical mosquitoes feed mainly at night.

Community approaches

Assisting with economic development in endemic regions can contribute to prevention and treatment of tropical diseases. For example, microloans enable communities to invest in health programs that lead to more effective disease treatment and prevention technology.

Educational campaigns can aid in the prevention of various diseases. Educating children about how diseases spread and how they can be prevented has proven to be effective in practicing preventative measures. Educational campaigns can yield significant benefits at low costs.

Other approaches

The History of White People

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The History of White People
Cover of the first edition
AuthorNell Irvin Painter
LanguageEnglish
Published2010
PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages496
ISBN978-0393049343

The History of White People is a 2010 book by Nell Irvin Painter, in which the author explores the idea of whiteness throughout history, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing through the beginning of scientific racism in early modern Europe to 19th- through 21st-century America.

Overview

The book describes attitudes toward and definitions of race among Europeans, and particularly Americans of European descent. The author says the idea of race is not just a matter of biology but also includes "concepts of labor, gender, class, and images of personal beauty".

The earliest European societies, including the Greeks and Romans, had no concept of race and classified people by ethnicity and social class, with the lowest class being slaves. Throughout most of European history, slaves were generally of European origin, often from conquered countries. From the fifth to the eleventh century the Vikings were especially prolific slavers, capturing and selling the inhabitants wherever they went. It was only in relatively modern times that slavery became associated with race. In 1790, U.S. citizens were defined as "free white men"; this excluded white men who were indentured servants. By the mid 19th century in America, white people (as then defined) were all free; slaves were of African or part-African descent.

When writers and scientists began to explore the concept of race, they focused on Europe, describing three or four different races among Europeans. Much of the classification was done by head shape and skull measurements, as well as height and skin pigmentation. The most attractive and most admirable race was that found in northwestern Europe, while the inhabitants of eastern and southern Europe were classified as lower races. The categorizing of different European races had legal and social effects in the United States, where 19th century immigrants from less favored areas such as Ireland, Italy, and Iberia were treated as less than fully "white" for legal and social purposes.

During the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, discussion of race often included a belief in the permanent superiority of one racial group over others, and a fear of the loss of racial purity. Intelligence testing was widely used as a means of ranking various races and ethnicities; this led to immigration laws that encouraged immigration from the presumably most desirable racial and ethnic groups while discouraging or forbidding others. Ralph Waldo Emerson was an influential figure in promoting some of these racial theories. Eugenics became a widely discussed issue and was embraced to some extent by many prominent people including Theodore Roosevelt and David Starr Jordan. Eugenics proponents urged higher reproductive rates among the most desirable population and sometimes sterilization of the less desirable elements.

The author traces four consecutive "enlargements of American whiteness" by which Irish, Italians, Jews, Hispanics, and other discriminated-against ethnicities gradually became fully accepted into white society. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 eliminated legal discrimination by race. As of the book's publication date, 2010, mixed-race people were more common and were becoming integrated: "The dark of skin who happen to be rich ... and the light of skin from any (racial background) who are beautiful, are now well on their way to inclusion." The author concludes that race has not disappeared from American society – "the fundamental black/white binary endures" – but the "category of whiteness – or we might say more precisely, a category of nonblackness – effectively expands."

Reception

The book was a New York Times best seller. Professor of English Paul Devlin, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, said the book "is perhaps the definitive story of a most curious adjective. It is a scholarly, non-polemical masterpiece of broad historical synthesis, combining political, scientific, economic and cultural history." Historian Linda Gordon, writing in The New York Times, says the book "has much to teach everyone, including whiteness experts, but it is accessible and breezy, its coverage broad and therefore necessarily superficial." She adds that she wishes she had had this book, "an insightful and lively exposition", to help her teach undergraduate students about race theory. Editor Thomas Rogers in Salon calls it an "exhaustive and fascinating new look at the history of the idea of the white race". Historian J.R. McNeill in Population and Development Review praised Neill's "grasp of American history and culture", but criticized "her forays into ancient history or modern science", giving as an example for the latter her "ill-advised remarks on the future of natural selection and skin color".

In January 2019, it was translated into French as Histoire des Blancs.

Entropy (information theory)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory) In info...