Health and Disease

Question 1

health

Answer 1

biomedicine: the absence of disease
WHO: a state of complete social, psychological, and physical wellbeing
-it is normative, multi-faced, and situational

Question 2

health is normative and situational, and multifaced

Answer 2

normative: defined by cultural norms
situational: dependent on specific circumstances
multifaced: not merely the absence of disease

Question 3

three bodies model (Scheper-Hughes and Lock)

Answer 3

clarifies the ways that health is interconnected with wider social conditions and their determinants

Question 4

Miyupimaatisiiun

Answer 4

to be alive well

-encompasses one’s whole experience of living

Question 5

social determinants of health and disease

Answer 5

social conditions shape exposure to illness

Question 6

epidemiology

Answer 6

the study of disease in human populations

Question 7

epidemic

Answer 7

a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Question 8

pandemics

Answer 8

an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people

Question 9

infectious disease

Answer 9

disease caused by pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi [which] can be spread, directly or indirectly, from one person to another

Question 10

transmissibility and virulence

Answer 10

virulence: severity of disease caused by pathogen infection (related to pathogenicity)
transmissibility: efficacy of transmission from host to host

Question 11

novel pathogens

Answer 11

generally introduced from reservoir species (zoonoses): livestock, wildlife
often maladapted to a new host

Question 12

trade-offs: what are the adaptations and mitigating factors of transmission/virulence?

Answer 12

evolution selects against pathogens that kill their host before transmission
adaptations to ensure transmission:
- reduced virulence
-long incubation periods
-persistent in the environment
mitigating factors
-rapid transport 
-repeated introductions
-mobile host

Question 13

emergent pathogens

Answer 13

pathogens that are novel (SARS-CoV2), emergent (Ebola), or resurgent (polio, measles, TB)
-caused by human behaviour

Question 14

factors that affect the emergence of pathogens

Answer 14

• Human demography and behaviour (including disease-prevent measures-i.e public health and infrastructure)
• Macro-ecological changes (global and local climate and human land use, eg. Agriculture, dams, infrastructure)
• Movements of people and goods
• Technology and industry (food, medicines, housing)
* Microbial adaptation and change (eg. Drug resistance and random processes, eg. Antigenic drift)

Question 15

poverty

Answer 15

higher levels of exposure
less access to diagnosis and treatment options
unable to stop working

Question 16

epidemiologic transitions

Answer 16

major changes and disease profile associated with massive shifts in technology, subsistence, and demography

Question 17

first epidemiologic transition

Answer 17

• “neolithic”: associated with shift to dense sedentary communities, dietary and ecological shifts
• key pathogens: those that spread via close contact routes

Question 18

william mcneil

Answer 18

the civilized pattern of disease: theory that urban ecology of poor communities are more exposed to diseases because of pollutants, stress, violence, poor nutrition etc.

Question 19

second epidemiologic transition

Answer 19

suppression of infectious disease transmission, increase in medical efficacy

• longer lives
• industrialization

Question 20

Pasteur, Koch

Answer 20

Germ Theory of disease

Question 21

Third epidemiologic transition

Answer 21

re-emergence of infectious disease, drug therapy resistance and changes in environments and land use

Question 22

trade and travel vs disease

Answer 22

pathogens that travel well are those that:

• survive outside the body
• cause chronic infection
• are sexually transmitted

Question 23

“virgin soil” epidemics

Answer 23

triggered by contact with settlers during colonization (Australia, America, island nations)

Question 24

what makes colonization different from a trade-related transmission?

Answer 24

• the subjugation of colonized peoples

- extraction of wealth from colonized lands

Question 25

sources of evidence of diseases in the past

Answer 25

• historical records
• evidence from bones
• signs of anemia
• pathogen phylogenetics and DNA