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This chapter argues that models trying to explain the spread of drug use should not be based on standard epidemiological models developed to describe the spread of infectious diseases. The main weaknesses of the standard model are the lack of attention to micro-foundations and the inappropriateness of several of its assumptions in the context of drug use. An approach based on mechanisms and social interaction is argued to provide a promising alternative to the standard approach. To illustrate this, a model of the spread of drugs based on two mechanisms has been developed (observational learning and social stigma). Lastly, some of the difficulties in testing and deriving policy implications in these models are discussed.

As the disease of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) continues to affect more persons, the literature on AIDS proliferates. While most of the AIDS literature is written for a general or a medical audience, the information on AIDS found in United States government publications illustrates the political dimensions of the disease. Issues contained in these documents include subjects such as the lack of serious funding for AIDS research and congressional testimony by persons with AIDS. Reports of scientific advances through executive agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control are also found in these documents.

There are several infectious agents in the environment that can cause persistent infections in the host. They usually cause their symptoms shortly after first infection and later persist as silent viruses and bacteria within the body. However, these chronic infections may play an important role in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome (TS). We investigated the distribution of different neurotrophic infectious agents in TS, schizophrenia and controls. A total of 93 individuals were included (schizophrenic patients, Tourette patients and controls). We evaluated antibodies against cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes-simplex virus (HSV), Epstein-Barr virus, Toxoplasma, Mycoplasma and Chlamydia trachomatis/pneumoniae. By comparing schizophrenia and TS, we found a higher prevalence of HSV (P=0.017) and CMV (P=0.017) antibodies in schizophrenic patients. Considering the relationship between schizophrenia, TS and healthy controls, we showed that there are associations for Chlamydia trachomatis (P=0.007), HSV (P=0.027) and CMV (P=0.029). When all measured viruses, bacteria and protozoa were combined, schizophrenic patients had a higher rate of antibodies to infectious agents than TS patients (P=0.049). Tourette and schizophrenic patients show a different vulnerability to infectious agents. Schizophrenic patients were found to have a higher susceptibility to viral infections than individuals with TS. This finding might point to a modification in special immune parameters in these diseases.

We discuss the connections between epidemiology models and the search and matching (SAM) approach and draw conclusions about modeling the trade-offs between lockdowns and disease spread. We review the pre-COVID epidemics literature, which was mainly by epidemiologists, and the post-COVID surge in economics papers that use meeting technologies to model the trade-offs. We argue that modeling the decentralized equilibrium with economic trade-offs gives rise to substantially different results from the earlier epidemics literature, but policy action is still welfare-improving because of several externalities.

This chapter reviews factors responsible for climate change, impacts of the change on animal health, zoonotic diseases, and their linkage with One-Health program.

This chapter is based on the available literature related to climate change and its effect on animal health and production from different points. The causes and change forcers of climate change, direct and indirect effects of the change on animal health management, host–pathogen–vector interaction, and zoonotic diseases are included. Inter-linkage between climate change and One-Health program are also assessed.

Beside natural causes of climatic change, greenhouse gases are increasing due to human activities, causing global climate changes which have direct and indirect animal health and production performance impacts. The direct impacts are increased ambient temperature, floods, and droughts, while the indirect are reduced availability of water and food. The change and effect also promote diseases spread, increase survival and availability of the pathogen and its intermediate vector host, responsible for distribution and prevalence of tremendous zoonotic, infectious, and vector-borne diseases. The adverse effect on the biodiversity, distribution of animals and micro flora, genetic makeup of microbials which may lead to emerging and re-emerging disease and their outbreaks make the strong linkage between climate change and One-Health.

Global climate change is receiving increasing international attention where international organizations are increasing their focus on tackling the health impacts. Thus, there is a need for parallel mitigation of climate change and animal diseases in a global form.

Most research on climate change is limited to environmental protection, however this chapter provides a nexus between climate change, animal health, livestock production, and the One-Health program for better livelihood.

Because medical waste may present potential hazards to employees, waste handlers and the general public, all facilities generating this form of waste should develop and implement a medical waste management strategy. This strategy should be prepared after conducting a survey to determine the types and estimated amounts of medical waste generated by the facility. The strategy should address medical waste handling, including segregation, packaging, in‐house transport and storage. The management plan must also prescribe appropriate treatment procedures for contaminated waste, and designate proper methods for final disposal of medical wastes and treatment residues. Finally, the facility must ensure the implementation and monitoring of this strategy.

The paper aims to apply the probabilistic analysis of risks, improve the prediction and control of infections and optimise the use of resources and the knowledge available at all times.

First, a model based on Bayesian inference, which can be solved with the WinBUGS (Windows interface Bayesian inference Using Gibbs Sampling) simulation software, is described to reduce the uncertainty of the parameter that most influences air transmission: the rate of quanta emitted by the infected. Second, a method for predicting the expected number of infections and combining available resources to reduce parameter is described.

The results indicate that it is possible to initiate a powerful learning process when all available knowledge is integrated alongside the newly observed data and that it is possible to quantify the interaction between the environment and the spaces, improving the communication process by providing the values in a format that facilitates the objective perception of danger.

The implementation of the inference model requires access to the spaces where there were infected.

The current study provides a model and a method to improve the probabilistic analysis of risks, which allows the systematisation of the risk-based management approach to control community transmission caused by infectious agents that use the airway.

The application of the risk assessment and treatment method requires collaboration between the parties that will help the effective implementation of the improvements, such as to verify whether the available resources are sufficient to achieve control.

A hierarchical Bayesian inference model is presented to control the uncertainty in the quanta rate. Bayesian inference initiates a learning process to better understand random uncertainty. A method to quantify and communicate risk was also presented, which proposes to decompose the risk into four components to predict the expected number of infected individuals, helping to implement improvement measures, with the resources and knowledge available.

There is no doubt that global climate change poses a threat to human health in a number of ways. Globally, 23% of all deaths in 2012 were attributed to the environment and an additional 250,000 potential deaths per year from 2030 to 2050 due to the effects of climate change. Heat waves, storms, droughts and floods pose an immediate risk of infectious diseases in humans. Temperature affects the survival rates of pathogens. Some populations and some areas are more vulnerable to infectious diseases due to their lack of ability to respond effectively to the stresses of high temperatures. Excessive rainfall could cause sewage to overflow and promote the onset and spread of infectious diseases ranging in severity from mild gastroenteritis to life-threatening illnesses such as cholera, dysentery and other diseases. Infectious diseases are a category of health problems that are particularly affected by climate change. Infections that occur are air-borne, water-borne and zoonotic. They are affected by the increase of the temperature, but also by the increase of the viral load in the water due to changes in the rainfall. Transmission can also take place through the migration of environmental refugees. Such an important topic could be the subject for students learning English. The purpose of this study will be to highlight the association of climate change with infectious-communicable diseases in order to take action and to create the structure by which students could learn English by studying these definitions.

The 2003 global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was an abrupt reminder that infectious diseases pose a continuing threat to human health. In 1967, U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart declared “it was time to close the book on infectious diseases” (Garrett, 1994, citing W.H. Stewart, “A Mandate for State Action,” presented at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, Washington, DC, December 4, 1967). In the latter half of the twentieth century, many shared this bold view that medical science had vanquished infectious disease. As a result, public health struggled to remain relevant in the face of advances in pharmaceuticals, surgery, genetics and other areas that were becoming increasingly dominant in the quest to extend and enhance human life. SARS forced many to rethink the significance of public health and the crisis, though relatively short-lived, (for commentary on the disparities between the responses to HIV and SARS, see e.g. Altman (2003)) underscored the need to rebuild public health capacity that had been allowed to slip down the health system priority list.

The years 2011, 2012, and 2013 witnessed both significant developments and setbacks in global polio eradication efforts. On the positive side, January 13, 2012, marked a full year since India had detected a case of wild poliovirus. On the negative side, polio continued to be endemic in three countries-Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria-and in those countries the goal of eliminating polio seemed more challenging than ever. Between December 2012 and January 2013, sixteen polio workers were killed in Pakistan, and in February 2013, nine women vaccinating children against polio in Kano, Nigeria, were shot dead by gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamist sect. In addition, after a 95 percent decline in polio cases in 2010, the number of cases in Nigeria rebounded in 2011. Recognizing that polio was unlikely to be eliminated in these countries in the near term, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative moved its target date for eradication from 2013 to 2018.

These setbacks sparked a debate about the appropriate strategy for global eradication of polio. Indeed, some experts believed that recent setbacks were not caused by poor management but were instead the result of epidemiological characteristics and preconditions that might render polio eradication unachievable. These experts argued that global health efforts should focus on the control or elimination of polio rather than on the eradication of the disease.

This case presents an overview of polio and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and recounts the successful effort to eradicate smallpox. The case enables a rich discussion of the current global strategy to eradicate polio, as well as the issue of whether eradication is the appropriate global public health objective. More generally, the case provides a concrete example of a particular type of global public good, namely infectious disease eradication.

After analyzing and discussing the case, students will be able to:

• Understand the nature of a global public good

• Perform a back-of-the-envelope benefit-cost analysis of polio eradication

• Discuss the appropriate strategy for eradicating an infectious disease

• Apply game theory to analyzing which countries would be likely to contribute funds toward global polio eradication

• Discuss the role of private organizations in the provision of global public goods

Understand the nature of a global public good

Perform a back-of-the-envelope benefit-cost analysis of polio eradication

Discuss the appropriate strategy for eradicating an infectious disease

Apply game theory to analyzing which countries would be likely to contribute funds toward global polio eradication

Discuss the role of private organizations in the provision of global public goods