Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-158). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Under the ancient threat of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, human societies have responded for thousands of years by imposing social containment measures. Even before theorists and laymen recognized the existence of pathogenic organisms, or fully understood the principles of contagion, many societies and individuals did empirically infer that such diseases were transmissible from human to human (as well as sometimes between animals and humans). Having few effective technological measures to prevent or treat contagions, they did devise a variety of socio-behavioral procedures for separating overtly ill persons or suspected disease-carriers from nominally uninfected people. These methods included various kinds of quarantines and isolations. By the early years of the American republic, all of the states and many other jurisdictions had the legal power to impose them, and they have long remained on the codebooks of much of the country even as secular trends and bio-scientific advances appeared to reduce the dangers of epidemic disease in the Developed World. In recent years, however, there has been a recognized resurgence of infectious diseases in Western countries, and such developments as microbial resistance to antibiotics are threatening present-day control technologies. Under these circumstances, it is hypothesized here that societies must plan for the renewed usage of the ancient socio-legal contagion-controls, including quarantines and isolations, at least as part of a multi-pronged response to the renewed challenge of epidemics. However, the existing quarantine/isolation laws do not universally reflect modern scientific understandings of disease processes, and they have always conflicted with other socioethical and litical "goods" such as individual liberties and commerce. Thus, it is submitted here that it has become crucial to understand the historic character of quarantine-type measures on a "macro" plane, in order to learn from past errors, and to help develop modern quarantine/isolation laws and practices that reflect current bioscientific and legal thinking. The instant Dissertation analyzes the longstanding system of socio-legal controls over contagion, presenting a hypothetical structure that distinguishes them along several "Dimensions." In addition, it presents a functional schema that would help public health policy-makers, legislative drafters, and administrators to address individual contagions in terms of another set of "Dimensions," which would be more responsive to evolving bioscientific and jurisprudential thought. To that end, this Dissertation presents a simple Algorithm that can be utilized when developing contagion-control laws that can be closely fitted to particular contagions, their specific manifestations, and their epidemic phases.

published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Darbo tikslas: Išanalizuoti sergamumą oro-lašinėmis infekcijomis Kauno mieste 2002 – 2007 metais ir nustatyti sąsajas tarp sergamumo oro – lašinėmis infekcijomis ir imunoprofilaktikos. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Įvertinti oro - lašinių infekcijų (tymai, epideminis parotitas, skarlatina, raudonukė, virusinis meningitas, infekcinsu meningokokas, vėjaraupiai) pasiskirstymą įvairiose amžiaus grupėse Kauno mieste 2002-2007 metais. 2. Palyginti sergamumo kai kuriomis oro- lašinėmis infekcijomis kitimą Kauno mieste 2002 – 2007 metais. 3. Nustatyti sąsajas tarp sergamumo oro – lašinėmis infekcijomis ir imunoprofilaktikos. Metodika: Informacija apie sergamumą oro-lašinėmis infekcijomis gauta iš Kauno visuomenės sveikatos centro. Duomenys apie sergamumą oro-lašinėmis infekcijomis paimti iš Kauno visuomenės sveikatos centro kompiuterinės duomenų bazės ULISAS (užkrečiamųjų ligų informacijos ir statistinės apskaitos sistema). Taip pat buvo naudojamasi 2002-2007 metų mėnesinėmis, pusmetinėmis ir metinėmis atskaitomis. Duomenys apdoroti ir išanalizuoti naudojantis statistine programa SPSS 16. Skaičiuotas vidurkis, SD, PI. Duomenys pateikiami absoliučiais skaičiais ir procentais. Buvo skaičiuojami sergamumo rodikliai 10 000 gyventojų. Rezultatai: Sergamumo pagal amžiaus grupes analizė parodė, kad rečiausiai sirgo 13 – 18 metų vaikai, o dažniausiai – 3-6 metų. Susirgimai vėjaraupiais sudaro didžiausią dalį visų oro – lašinių infekcijų - 80,1 proc. (be ūmių virusinių kvėpavimo takų infekcijų ir... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Aim of the study. To analyse morbidity of air-born infections in Kaunas city in 2002–2007 and to assess links between morbidity of air-born infections and immunoprophylaxis. Tasks of the study: 1. To assess prevalence of air-born infections (measles, mumps, scarlatina, rubella, viral meningitis, infectious meningococcus, varicella) in various groups of age in 2002–2007 in Kaunas city. 2. To compare trends of some air-born infections in Kaunas city in 2002–2007. 3. To assess links between air-born infections’ morbidity and immunoprophylaxis. Method: Information about morbidity of air-born infections is got from Kaunas Public Health Center. Data of air-born infections’ morbidity is taken from data basis ULISAS (a system of communicable diseases information and statistical accounting). Also, the monthly, half-yearly and annual records of the years 2002–2007 were used. Data was archived and analyzed by using the statistical programme SPSS 16. An average, SD, PI were counted. Results are submitted in total numbers and percents. Morbidity was calculated to 10000 population. Results: The analysis according to the age groups showed, that children of 13–18 years old were ill most rarely and most frequently – children of 13–16 years old. Ailment of chickenpox makes the biggest part of air-born infections – 81 % (without Acute upper airway infections and influenza), ailments of rubella were registered least – 0,2 %. Of 10698 ill cases, 67 diseases (0,63 %) were registered after... [to full text]

No abstract available. / Thesis (MMed)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

SUMMARY Management of Public Health ORGANIZATION OF DISEASES PREVENTION IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE Raminta Gečaitė Supervisor Skirmantė Starkuvienė, MD, PhD, Lecturer, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Public Health, Kaunas University of Medicine. – Kaunas, 2005. - P.56. Aim of the study – to evaluate patients’ attitude towards the non-communicable diseases (NCD) prevention in primary health care and to clarify the differences of the prevention between general practitioners (GP) and therapeutists. Methods. The anonymous questionnaire survey was performed among adult patients, who visited their family doctor in Kaunas Kalniečiu outpatient clinic, at the Department of General Practitioners and General clinic (the work is organized in a team principal). There were 120 questionnaires distributed to the patients of GP and 101 of them were fulfilled and returned back (response rate – 84.2%). There were also 120 questionnaires delivered to the patients, who visited therapeutists and 98 of them were filled in (response rate – 81.7%). The data was analyzed by the application of statistical package SPSS 11.03 for Windows. The associations between the variables were measured using the Chi-squared and the Student tests. Results. The survey disclosed that 15.6% of the respondents visited the family doctor in order to examine their health preventively. More than half (51.8%) of the patients were satisfied with the organization of diseases prevention carried out by their family... [to full text]

INTRODUCTION Chronic non-communicable diseases (CND) become the reason of 50 percent of deaths in the welfare societies. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has indicated that in the 2025 CND, especially cardiovascular diseases will remain the most important health problem in Europe and in the world [The World health Report, 1998]. The mortality rates from IHD, as well as overall mortality in Lithuania, increased since 1995, a tendency for decrease during the last decade has been observed. According to the Lithuanian Statistics, the mortality rate from IHD in 2001 was 628.2/100000 inhabitants per year [Lithuanian Ministry of Health, 2004]. It decreased almost by quarter as compared to 1995; nevertheless, the mortality rates from IHD in Lithuania exceed the average (mean) of the European Union countries nearly by two fold [WHO Data Base, 2003]. The investigations in the world, as well as in Lithuania have shown that the risk factors (RF) of the CND are common for all the CND [V.Grabauskas, 1995, IU.Haq, 1999]. In Lithuania the epidemiological research on CND has been performed in the context of the international integrated preventive program on non-communicable diseases (CINDI) [J.Petkevičienė, 1994, J.Klumbienė, 1999]. Therefore, the role of the family doctor in the primary prevention of CND, especially the ischemic heart disease (IHD), becomes very important in a certain community. The investigation in Lithuanian have shown that every second 35-64 year old man or woman... [to full text]