Poikilothermic and endothermic animals demonstrate febrile response to infection with bacteria or to injection with endogenous pyrogen extract of Prostaglandin E1. Febrile response is measured in endotherms as a relative change in metabolically achieved body temperature and in poikilotherms as an increase in selected temperatures relative to previously established preferred temperatures. Final preferendum change with environmental factors or associated physiological states.

CHIK is a viral infection transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which causes an illness with symptoms of severe joint pain, high fever, and rash. The joint pain can continue for months, causing disability and economic strain on families. This study included implementation of a baseline needs assessment, and development, implementation, and evaluation of an experimental community-based educational intervention in rural Tamil Nadu, India. A total of 184 households, across 12 purposively sampled villages (six intervention and six control), participated in the needs assessment between August and December 2010. The experimental community-based educational intervention was implemented between December 2010 and August 2011, in the six intervention villages. A total of 180 households, from the same 12 villages, participated in the post-intervention evaluation. A randomized block design with repetition was used to test whether there was a change in CHIK knowledge scores from baseline to post-intervention in the treatment group. A model including respondent variables, household larval status, household container larval status, recent experience with CHIK, numbers of livestock, socioeconomic position (SEP) variables, and water variables were used to predict CHIK knowledge scores in rural Tamil Nadu. Respondent age, measures of luxury amenities and water source were statistically significant predictors of knowledge in this model. The CHIK knowledge score increased from 9.0 to 9.4 in the intervention group (p=0.6457) and from 8.5 to 9.2 in the control group (p=0.393), showing that the educational intervention did not increase CHIK knowledge in the intervention group. Although this low-cost intervention, utilized in a resource poor area of Tamil Nadu, India did not result in an increase of CHIK knowledge, the process of developing the educational intervention may provide a template for future interventions. Future studies should investigate methods of sustainability in the use of educational messages.

Typhoid fever is a forgotten disease in today's society, but for the people of nineteenth century Australia it was part of their every day lives. This thesis examines the role that the Queensland colonial government, the medical profession, and the communities of Toowoomba and Brisbane played in the fight against the disease. At separation from New South Wales the Queensland government officials were new and inexperienced and had inherited a financial debt. These circumstances resulted in cautionary governance when it came to public health policy and issues, but determination and single-mindedness when it came to development of roads and railway lines. The government’s view at the time was if the colony was to prosper then this type of infrastructure must be developed at all costs. What the government failed to realise was that the infrastructure of drainage and sewerage, associated with good public health policies, needed to go side by side with other types of infrastructure. The prosperity of the colony rested on the health of its people. Because of the failure of the government to recognise the value of strong public health legislation it was up to the medical profession and the community to be vigilant and take the challenge to the government. This study has found that throughout the second half of the nineteenth century the medical profession and the community with the support of various newspapers had to challenge the government on public health issues consistently in relation to typhoid fever. This political pressure was more successful in Toowoomba where William Groom’s leadership achieved some important engineering solutions whereas campaigns in the capital, Brisbane, were marked by diversity and divisions. Intransigent colonial government policy condemned both cities to inadequate sanitation infrastructure until the twentieth century.

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Objective: Globally, about 50 to 100 million patients are infected with dengue fever per year and the average mortality rate is about 3.5 to 5% in Asia. Because of appropriate geographic location and cultural factors, dengue fever has been the important subject of infectious disease that Taiwan faces. In order to control and prevent the spread of dengue fever effectively, how to diagnose the suspected case correctly by the clinical symptoms and to improve the early reporting rates become critical research questions. The purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between clinical symptoms and diagnosis of dengue fever, and the factors associated with being reported at the first outpatient visit among confirmed case by using Dengue Fever Survey Form, which including demographics, clinical symptoms, level of the first outpatient visit and whether the patient is reported at the first outpatient visit. Design: 593 virologically confirmed cases during 2006 Dengue endemics in Kaohsiung city were studied. The data were from Dengue Fever Survey Form, which were collected from January 1 to December 31,2006. Result: The mean age of cases was 46.45¡Ó19.06 years (range 2 years to 89 years). The most common symptoms were fever (97.3%), pain (75.2%), GI symptoms (74.7%), skin rash (49.2%), and thirsty/dry mouth (49.1%). Chi-square tests showed gender, age in group, viral type, whether dengue hemorrhagic fever or not, level of the first outpatient visit, pain and gastrointestinal symptoms were significantly associated with being reported at the first outpatient visit. The result of the analysis of logistic regression indicated that the significant predictors of being reported at the first outpatient visit were gender, age in group, viral type, level of the first outpatient visit, gastrointestinal symptoms and fatigue. Conclusion: Reporting of infectious disease is essential to detection of outbreaks, planning of control program and provision of appropriate treatment. Clinical symptoms of dengue fever and the level of the first outpatient visit will influence rates of being reported at the first outpatient visit. All medical providers involved in diagnosis and treatment of dengue fever should strengthen their knowledge by continuing learning in order to improve early identification rates. In addition, health department could try to improve the detection and reporting systems to make the reporting steps more convenient and advance early reporting rates.

Thesis (MSc (Production Animal Studies, Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print format.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly lethal and economically significant disease of domestic pigs in the southern African sub-region, where outbreaks regularly occur. Thereis anecdotal evidence suggesting that trans-boundary movement of infected animals may have played a role in precipitating widespread outbreaks in the past, however, since the1970s outbreaks have generally been more localised, particularly in those countries where control of animal movement is strictly regulated. The origin and relatedness of regional ASF outbreaks was investigated here by means of a two-step genetic characterisation approach whereby p72 gene sequencing was used to delineate genotypes, prior to intragenotypic resolution of viral relationships by central variable region (CVR) characterisation of the 9RL ORF. In this manner, regional virus heterogeneity and epidemiological links between outbreaks could be assessed for the first time through phylogenetic analysis of the C-terminal end of the p72 gene of viruses recovered from domestic pig outbreaks in southern Africa between 1973 and 1999. The phylogeny revealed the presence of 14 distinct p72 genotypes of which 6 (genotypes XVII–XXII) were considered novel. Eight of these were country-specific with the remaining six having a trans-boundary distribution. CVR products were heterogeneous in size ranging from 377 bp to 533 bp across the 14 southern African genotypes. Within-genotype CVR comparisons revealed the presence of a genotype XIX virus with an extended field presence in South Africa (1985–1996) and permitted discrimination between three genotype VII viruses that were identical across the p72 gene.

published_or_final_version / Medical Sciences / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

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