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Social context of health and illness
Published in Sally Robinson, Priorities for Health Promotion and Public Health, 2021
In 1848, medical officers for health were introduced in England (Hardy, 2001). Their epidemiological work became the branch of medicine called public health medicine. By 1900, the records showed a dramatic fall in infectious diseases such as smallpox, respiratory tuberculosis and scarlet fever in England and Wales, and it was widely believed to be due to the advancement of medical science (McKeown, 1976). During the twentieth century money and support went into the development of vaccines and antibiotics. Doctors became associated with miraculous cures and respect for the profession soared. Infectious diseases continued to fall, and by the middle of the century international vaccination programmes were developed for the eradication of infectious diseases (Hajj et al., 2015).
Control of Human Intestinal Nematode Infections
Published in Max J. Miller, E. J. Love, Parasitic Diseases: Treatment and Control, 2020
For the prevention, treatment, and eventual eradication of infectious diseases, three fundamentally different but, potentially mutually complementary, strategies are to be considered. The first strategy is designed to strengthen the defensive abilities of the human host against the invading pathogens. This includes efforts to correct nutritional deficiencies and vaccination. The second strategy aims at modifying the environment so as to lower the probability of transmission of the pathogen. The third strategy is based on chemotherapy, i.e., the rational use of drugs.
Management of minor illness
Published in Gina Johnson, Ian Hill-Smith, Chirag Bakhai, The Minor Illness Manual, 2018
Gina Johnson, Ian Hill-Smith, Chirag Bakhai
It is apparent from reading the other chapters of this book that the previous optimism of Western medicine about the eradication of infectious diseases through antibiotics has not been fulfilled. The more that we research these drugs, the more evidence we find that their benefits in most cases of minor illness are marginal, yet little evidence exists to support alternative treatments (including traditional self-care advice about rest and fluids) nor is such evidence likely to be provided because funding for research into minor illness and the relief of self-limiting symptoms remains limited.
Emerging skin-targeted drug delivery strategies to engineer immunity: A focus on infectious diseases
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2021
Emrullah Korkmaz, Stephen C. Balmert, Cara Donahue Carey, Geza Erdos, Louis D. Falo
The host immune system plays a central role in infections and in the fight against infectious pathogens [28–30]. Most palpably, initiation and progression of infectious diseases are greatly controlled by innate and adaptive components of the immune system [31,32]. A thorough understanding of pathogen-specific cellular and molecular immune mechanisms facilitates the rational design and development of efficacious immunization methods using optimal antigens and immune-stimulants (adjuvants) for prevention and/or eradication of infectious diseases [33–35]. Emerging drug delivery technologies along with identification of novel vaccine administration routes enable safe, targeted, and controlled approaches to specifically manipulate host immunity to effectively combat infectious pathogens [36–38]. In particular, cutaneous immunomodulation is an appealing alternative to other prevailing vaccination strategies to engineer systemic immunity in a pathogen-specific manner, since the skin is a readily accessible immune-responsive tissue [39,40].