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The Social Construction of Airborne Infections
Published in AnnaMarie Bliss, Dak Kopec, Architectural Factors for Infection and Disease Control, 2023
Infectious diseases spread in various ways. Some travel through vectors like insects, for example, malaria, trachoma, Lyme disease, and bubonic plague. Others are ingested through contaminated food or water, for example, cholera, dysentery, giardia, and norovirus. Still others involve direct person-to-person contact, for example, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, and staph infection. Many pathogens transmit through multiple modes. For instance, trachoma is an eye infection caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis. It spreads through direct person-to-person contact and indirect contact with fomites (inanimate objects that are contaminated with pathogens) but is also vector-borne because it is carried by flies. Another example is staph infection, a disease caused by the staphylococcus bacteria which expresses itself in many different ways including skin infections, food poisoning, and toxic shock syndrome. It is also transmitted through direct person-to-person contact and indirect contact with fomites. Some evidence suggests that Staphylococcus aureus – the antimicrobial resistant form of staph known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – can be transmitted through airborne droplets (Kozajda, Jeżak, & Kapsa, 2019). Pathogens, and diseases they cause, are complex, and understanding their mode(s) of transmission is essential in determining how to reduce risk.
Engineering control of insect-borne diseases
Published in Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem, Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics, 2018
Sandy Cairncross, Richard Feachem
Two eye infections, conjunctivitis and trachoma, are prevalent in the tropics and may lead to blindness. Flies are strongly implicated as contributing to the transmission of these diseases, particularly among young children, whose faces are often crawling with flies (Figure 15.10). Flies will feed on the discharge from an infected eye and transmit it to another child on their legs or in their faeces. Fly control is as outlined above and depends on good domestic hygiene and sanitation. However, conjunctivitis and trachoma transmission would continue by direct person-to-person contact and the best control method is almost certainly water supply to allow frequent bathing of infected eyes (Chapter 1). In addition, increased water availability in a dry environment means that flies have more alternative sources of moisture such as puddles, and are therefore less likely to seek it from children’s eyes; it also makes it easier to keep the household cleaner, and thus less attractive to flies.
Two lamellar tissues: cornea and annulus fibrosus. Active transport
Published in Benjamin Loret, Fernando M. F. Simões, Biomechanical Aspects of Soft Tissues, 2017
Benjamin Loret, Fernando M. F. Simões
The need of corneas for transplantation has increased, not only because the number of transplantations increases, but also because the corneas which have undergone surgical procedures, e.g., refractive surgery, are deemed unsuitable for transplantations. In view of the gap between donor corneas and the demand, engineering of artificial corneas is becoming an actual alternative. Typically in western countries, every year, one person out of ten thousand is in demand of corneal transplant. In Europe, the available corneas amount to less than 30,000 while the demand corresponds to about 40,000 corneas. In the United States, the number of transplants is larger than 30 000 since the year 2000. Worldwide, the number of people suffering from corneal blindness is larger than two millions. The need for transplants stems from hereditary diseases, like keratoconus, diabetic keratopathy, ulcers resulting from severe degradation of collagen associated with excessive activity of specific enzymes (matrix metalloproteinases MMP), accidental lesions, burns and failure of previous surgeries. Trachoma, an infection caused by a bacterium, is the main source of blindness in developing countries.
Housing conditions and health in Indigenous Australian communities: current status and recent trends
Published in International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2021
The four selected disease types were (i) shigellosis, (ii) helminthiases, (iii) trachoma, and (iv) acute rheumatic fever. Shigellosis is an intestinal infection that is notifiable in NT and is caused by Shigella bacteria. It is transmitted by the faecal-oral route, and tends to reflect poor hygiene and sanitation conditions. In-depth (albeit occasional) syntheses of enteric disease notifications in NT provide Indigenous-specific shigellosis rates for children between 0 and 4 years (the age group that bears a disproportionately high shigellosis disease burden). Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) has been linked to streptococcal skin infections (McDonald et al. 2004), which in turn are commonly preceded by scabies infestation. ARF is a notifiable disease in NT, and Indigenous-specific rates are reported in tables supplementary to the national health performance framework report (AIHW 2017). A range of helminth infections – hookworm (A. duoedenale), whipworm (T. trichiura), Strongyloides stercoralis, and dwarf tapeworm (H. nana) – have recently been subject to longitudinal assessments in the academic literature (Davies et al. 2013; Crowe et al. 2014; Willcocks et al. 2015; Mayer-Coverdale et al. 2017). All four helminths are transmitted via human faeces and hence indicate inadequate sanitation. Finally, trachoma is an infectious eye disease for which face washing is a key prevention measure. Trachoma has been the subject of a large-scale screening and treatment programme in remote Indigenous communities since 2006, and annual reports present prevalence estimates for Indigenous children 5–9 years at a regional level.
Two Cu(II) coordination polymers: treatment activity and cursing values on trachoma by inhibiting the survival of Chlamydia trachomatis
Published in Inorganic and Nano-Metal Chemistry, 2022
Trachoma is an eye disease caused by the bacterial infection of Chlamydia trachomatis. Trachoma is known to be a public health problem in 41 countries and causes approximately 1.9 million people to become blind or visually impaired.[1] In 2016, 190.2 million people lived in trachoma-endemic areas and were at risk of trachoma blindness. Trachoma is the main infectious cause of blindness worldwide.[2] This infection is spread through contact with the ocular and nasal secretions of the infected person, especially the infected host of young children.[3] Flies that have been in contact with the eyes and nose of an infected person can also spread the disease.