Pub Date : 2020-09-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0016
M. Oldstone
This chapter explores acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a lethal disease cause by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Of the more than 75 million people HIV has infected in the 36 years (1983–2019) since the initial case report, nearly one-half of them have died. Not only the victims of this infection but also their families, communities, countries, and even continents endured years of suffering as AIDS proceeded on its long course of physical destruction. Today, however, the enormous advance in antivirus drug therapy has dramatically reduced the death rate and altered the portrait of this disease from an acute lethal disease to a chronic persistent infection. In 2019, the combination antiretroviral therapy has enabled those infected to survive at roughly the same rate as the general non-infected population. However, this increased longevity includes an upsurge in the former group’s medical problems caused by the side effects of antiretroviral therapy. Despite an outlay of $1 billion per year for AIDS research, no vaccine is on the horizon for preventing this medical catastrophe.
{"title":"Human Immunodeficiency Virus: AIDS, the Current Plague","authors":"M. Oldstone","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0016","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a lethal disease cause by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Of the more than 75 million people HIV has infected in the 36 years (1983–2019) since the initial case report, nearly one-half of them have died. Not only the victims of this infection but also their families, communities, countries, and even continents endured years of suffering as AIDS proceeded on its long course of physical destruction. Today, however, the enormous advance in antivirus drug therapy has dramatically reduced the death rate and altered the portrait of this disease from an acute lethal disease to a chronic persistent infection. In 2019, the combination antiretroviral therapy has enabled those infected to survive at roughly the same rate as the general non-infected population. However, this increased longevity includes an upsurge in the former group’s medical problems caused by the side effects of antiretroviral therapy. Despite an outlay of $1 billion per year for AIDS research, no vaccine is on the horizon for preventing this medical catastrophe.","PeriodicalId":403735,"journal":{"name":"Viruses, Plagues, and History","volume":"96 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129813742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0008
M. Oldstone
This chapter studies the history of hepatitis virus infection. Hepatitis and/or jaundice were recorded in the fourth century BC by Hippocrates and over 1,000 years ago in the ancient Chinese literature. By the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the association of a virus infection with jaundice and liver disease was made. The major hepatitis viruses are hepatitis A (HAV), hepatitis B (HBV), and non-A, non-B or hepatitis C (HCV). HAV is transmitted almost always by fecal–oral routes but occasionally by transfusion or inoculation of blood obtained during the transient stage of viremia that occurs during the HAV incubation period. While there is currently no effective vaccine for HCV, an effective vaccine exists for HBV. A problem with the HBV vaccine is individuals refusing to be vaccinated. Nevertheless, recent progress made on the understanding and treatment of these viruses has led to the World Health Organization planning that by 2030 hepatitis infections will be reduced by 90% and deaths by 65%.
{"title":"Hepatitis Viruses: Oysters, Blood Transfusions, and Cancer","authors":"M. Oldstone","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter studies the history of hepatitis virus infection. Hepatitis and/or jaundice were recorded in the fourth century BC by Hippocrates and over 1,000 years ago in the ancient Chinese literature. By the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the association of a virus infection with jaundice and liver disease was made. The major hepatitis viruses are hepatitis A (HAV), hepatitis B (HBV), and non-A, non-B or hepatitis C (HCV). HAV is transmitted almost always by fecal–oral routes but occasionally by transfusion or inoculation of blood obtained during the transient stage of viremia that occurs during the HAV incubation period. While there is currently no effective vaccine for HCV, an effective vaccine exists for HBV. A problem with the HBV vaccine is individuals refusing to be vaccinated. Nevertheless, recent progress made on the understanding and treatment of these viruses has led to the World Health Organization planning that by 2030 hepatitis infections will be reduced by 90% and deaths by 65%.","PeriodicalId":403735,"journal":{"name":"Viruses, Plagues, and History","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125725201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0013
M. Oldstone
This chapter assesses Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which represented the first new viral pandemic of the 21st century. Beginning mysteriously in Southern China during November of 2002, this plague was brought under control by 2004, but only after spreading to thirty-three countries on five continents and infecting over eight thousand humans, seven-hundred and seventy-four of whom died. How the disease spread exemplifies the speed and breadth of viral migration today. Then, as mysteriously as it came, SARS disappeared. However, a closely related viruses, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), first emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 and COVID-19 emerged in China in 2019 with both spreading globally. SARS , MERS and CVID-19 are members of the coronavirus family. At present, distinct species of bats have been implicated as natural reservoir for SARS maintaining this viruses in the communities it occupies. Meanwhile, how MERS first infected humans and what the animal carrier is are not clear; the suspects are bats and camels. For COVET-19 bats and civets are the suspects
{"title":"Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the First Pandemic of the Twenty-First Century; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome; and the 2019–2020 Outbreak of 2019-nCoV","authors":"M. Oldstone","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter assesses Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which represented the first new viral pandemic of the 21st century. Beginning mysteriously in Southern China during November of 2002, this plague was brought under control by 2004, but only after spreading to thirty-three countries on five continents and infecting over eight thousand humans, seven-hundred and seventy-four of whom died. How the disease spread exemplifies the speed and breadth of viral migration today. Then, as mysteriously as it came, SARS disappeared. However, a closely related viruses, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), first emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in 2012 and COVID-19 emerged in China in 2019 with both spreading globally. SARS , MERS and CVID-19 are members of the coronavirus family. At present, distinct species of bats have been implicated as natural reservoir for SARS maintaining this viruses in the communities it occupies. Meanwhile, how MERS first infected humans and what the animal carrier is are not clear; the suspects are bats and camels. For COVET-19 bats and civets are the suspects","PeriodicalId":403735,"journal":{"name":"Viruses, Plagues, and History","volume":"88 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127448448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0011
M. Oldstone
This chapter examines the Ebola virus in detail. Since 1976, with the exception of the 2013–2016 epidemic in West Africa, all outbreaks of Ebola virus infection have occurred in central Africa. The initial 1976 eruption of Ebola in Zaire in central Africa provided lessons for how to control future outbreaks of this disease. Unfortunately, those lessons were not well learned or sufficiently applied to the massive Ebola outbreak that followed in 2013–2016 in western Africa. Ebola virus can spread either through the air or by exposure to contaminated blood of infected humans. The clinical course of Ebola virus infection is that of a severe hemorrhagic fever. An Ebola vaccine was developed and administered to over 40,000 individuals for the 2018–2019 outbreak. However, the vaccine’s effectiveness in the outbreak has not been formally assessed, and critical scientific assessment will be difficult to achieve. Ultimately, Ebola virus remains endemic in Africa. Whether the fruit bat is the only natural reservoir for such viruses, how Ebola is transmitted, and where it lurks are still unresolved.
{"title":"Ebola","authors":"M. Oldstone","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the Ebola virus in detail. Since 1976, with the exception of the 2013–2016 epidemic in West Africa, all outbreaks of Ebola virus infection have occurred in central Africa. The initial 1976 eruption of Ebola in Zaire in central Africa provided lessons for how to control future outbreaks of this disease. Unfortunately, those lessons were not well learned or sufficiently applied to the massive Ebola outbreak that followed in 2013–2016 in western Africa. Ebola virus can spread either through the air or by exposure to contaminated blood of infected humans. The clinical course of Ebola virus infection is that of a severe hemorrhagic fever. An Ebola vaccine was developed and administered to over 40,000 individuals for the 2018–2019 outbreak. However, the vaccine’s effectiveness in the outbreak has not been formally assessed, and critical scientific assessment will be difficult to achieve. Ultimately, Ebola virus remains endemic in Africa. Whether the fruit bat is the only natural reservoir for such viruses, how Ebola is transmitted, and where it lurks are still unresolved.","PeriodicalId":403735,"journal":{"name":"Viruses, Plagues, and History","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130884533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0006
M. Oldstone
This chapter explores the origin and infectivity of the measles virus in the course of human history. How measles first came to infect humans is not clear. Definitive proof is hard to come by since measles virus infection was once nearly impossible to distinguish from smallpox virus infection. Consequently, both had been lumped together as a single entity. As early as the tenth century, the Arab physician Abu Becr first attempted to distinguish between the two. However, it was not until the seventeenth century that English physician Thomas Sydenham actually documented the clinical entity of measles infection. Once it was understood that infection with measles virus confers lifelong protection from the disease and that humans are the natural host, interest turned toward developing a preventive vaccine. The chapter then considers the purported evidence that measles virus vaccines may be harmful. Such misinformation is often propagated for personal reasons yet greatly affects public health and individual lives.
{"title":"Measles Virus","authors":"M. Oldstone","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores the origin and infectivity of the measles virus in the course of human history. How measles first came to infect humans is not clear. Definitive proof is hard to come by since measles virus infection was once nearly impossible to distinguish from smallpox virus infection. Consequently, both had been lumped together as a single entity. As early as the tenth century, the Arab physician Abu Becr first attempted to distinguish between the two. However, it was not until the seventeenth century that English physician Thomas Sydenham actually documented the clinical entity of measles infection. Once it was understood that infection with measles virus confers lifelong protection from the disease and that humans are the natural host, interest turned toward developing a preventive vaccine. The chapter then considers the purported evidence that measles virus vaccines may be harmful. Such misinformation is often propagated for personal reasons yet greatly affects public health and individual lives.","PeriodicalId":403735,"journal":{"name":"Viruses, Plagues, and History","volume":"140 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134025918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-17DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0009
M. Oldstone
This chapter highlights three of the recently identified viruses: Lassa fever virus, Ebola virus, and hantavirus. All three are equally lethal infectious agents, but they are members of different viral families. They share the ability to cause hemorrhagic fever. Once infected with any of these viruses, the victim soon suffers profuse breaks in small blood vessels, causing blood to ooze from the skin, mouth, gastrointestinal tract, and rectum. Internally, blood flows into the pleural cavity where the lungs are located, into the pericardial cavity surrounding the heart, into the abdomen, and into organs like the liver, kidney, heart, spleen, and lungs. Eventually, this uncontrolled bleeding causes unconsciousness and death. There is currently no established vaccine to prevent these potential plagues, although several are in various stages of development, and an Ebola vaccine is currently undergoing trial in Africa. The chapter also considers a newly emerging and undefined but serious disease of children, which arose primarily in 2014. Based on clinical observations, the disease is identified by the signs and symptoms of acute flaccid myelitis.
{"title":"An Overview of Newly Emerging Viral Plagues: The Hemorrhagic Fevers and a Newly Mysterious Suspect of Viral Disease, Acute Flaccid Paralysis","authors":"M. Oldstone","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190056780.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter highlights three of the recently identified viruses: Lassa fever virus, Ebola virus, and hantavirus. All three are equally lethal infectious agents, but they are members of different viral families. They share the ability to cause hemorrhagic fever. Once infected with any of these viruses, the victim soon suffers profuse breaks in small blood vessels, causing blood to ooze from the skin, mouth, gastrointestinal tract, and rectum. Internally, blood flows into the pleural cavity where the lungs are located, into the pericardial cavity surrounding the heart, into the abdomen, and into organs like the liver, kidney, heart, spleen, and lungs. Eventually, this uncontrolled bleeding causes unconsciousness and death. There is currently no established vaccine to prevent these potential plagues, although several are in various stages of development, and an Ebola vaccine is currently undergoing trial in Africa. The chapter also considers a newly emerging and undefined but serious disease of children, which arose primarily in 2014. Based on clinical observations, the disease is identified by the signs and symptoms of acute flaccid myelitis.","PeriodicalId":403735,"journal":{"name":"Viruses, Plagues, and History","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125157740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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