(mods please place where you think appropriate. These are some excerpts from a recent book that deals with the history of previous infectious disease outbreaks that have current policy implications)
This recent book deals with unusual disease outbreaks and allegations of natural or purposeful causes and the complex political, military, legal, and scientific challenges involved in these determinations..
Terrorism, War, Or Disease edited by Anne L. Clunan, Peter R. Lavoy and Susan B. Martin (2008).
Part I of the book features empirical case studies from the Second World War to the present, while Part II draws lessons and generates policy recommendations. ie
Chapter 3 The 1994 Plague in Western India (Human Ecology and the Risks of Misattribution) by Ron Barrett.
In Chapter 13 Building Information Networks for Biosecurity Anne Clunan explores how national, subnational, and transnational information networks may offer a crucial capacity for timely and accurate attribution of BW use. She assesses policy and trust issues involved in moving from a "need-to-know" limitation to a "need-to-share" presumption to facilitate quick and accurate determination of whether BW has been used and by whom.
Some excerpts from Chapter 3
The 1994 epidemic and its aftermath underscore the importance of public trust and a pre-existing public-health infrastructure for the attribution and control of infectious diseases, whether or not they are deliberately initiated.
Human ecology has been variously labeled as cultural ecology and political ecology. I am expressly avoiding either term to distance myself from academic squabbles between their respective extremes: vulgar adaptationism and vulgar activism, and to use the best of their methods without subscribing to the worst of their agendae.
Disease investigations are comparable to fire investigations: both require a deep understanding of behavioral and environmental factors. Circumstances can be analyzed in terms of human ecology, approaching the socioeconomic histories of human communities that create selective conditions for and against infectious diseases.
Earthquakes have long been associated with increases in rat populations, possibly due to the simultaneous disruption of rodent burrows and human granaries.
A mosaic of different communities and their respective networks formed a pattern of disease transmission in which social proximity had more effect than physical geography. (Members of Surat's working class communities are known to maintain close relationships with extended kin in their natal villages through regular visitation, such as observance of weddings and other life events)
The re-emergence of plague in western India after nearly three decades was a natural but unintended consequence of deliberate human actions taken in particular biosocial circumstances.
The rumor claimed that Muslim terrorists had poisoned the wells in revenge for violence received during a major riot in 1992. Events surrounding the 1992 violence may have influenced public response to the 1994 plague. Tensions between Hindu and Muslim communities were high.
The poisoning rumor persisted for a time even after newspapers first reported that the illnesses were due to plague, for the public had little trust in statements made by the media or government.
Had the government withheld its descision until all the WHO criteria were met, it could not have acted for weeks into the epidemic. Instead, the government erred in its diagnosis on the side of sensitivity and rapid response, an ?error? that ultimately proved correct. It would not have been realistic to withhold this information anyway, for the existing political conditions were such that even the suspicion of plague could not remain secret for long. The plague epidemic was a crisis of confidence as much as a crisis of public health. Far better to be forthcoming about the pathogen just as it was better to be forthcoming about the negligence from which it emerged. Such lessons apply to defense against future diseases, regardless of whether they are deliberately initiated.
The need for transparency may exceed the need for security. This is especially the case for public indentification of the disease. It was unlikely that the Indian authorities could have kept the plague a secret for long, and an earlier announcement could have given them the upper hand in the dissemination of accurate information.
This recent book deals with unusual disease outbreaks and allegations of natural or purposeful causes and the complex political, military, legal, and scientific challenges involved in these determinations..
Terrorism, War, Or Disease edited by Anne L. Clunan, Peter R. Lavoy and Susan B. Martin (2008).
Part I of the book features empirical case studies from the Second World War to the present, while Part II draws lessons and generates policy recommendations. ie
Chapter 3 The 1994 Plague in Western India (Human Ecology and the Risks of Misattribution) by Ron Barrett.
In Chapter 13 Building Information Networks for Biosecurity Anne Clunan explores how national, subnational, and transnational information networks may offer a crucial capacity for timely and accurate attribution of BW use. She assesses policy and trust issues involved in moving from a "need-to-know" limitation to a "need-to-share" presumption to facilitate quick and accurate determination of whether BW has been used and by whom.
Some excerpts from Chapter 3
The 1994 epidemic and its aftermath underscore the importance of public trust and a pre-existing public-health infrastructure for the attribution and control of infectious diseases, whether or not they are deliberately initiated.
Human ecology has been variously labeled as cultural ecology and political ecology. I am expressly avoiding either term to distance myself from academic squabbles between their respective extremes: vulgar adaptationism and vulgar activism, and to use the best of their methods without subscribing to the worst of their agendae.
Disease investigations are comparable to fire investigations: both require a deep understanding of behavioral and environmental factors. Circumstances can be analyzed in terms of human ecology, approaching the socioeconomic histories of human communities that create selective conditions for and against infectious diseases.
Earthquakes have long been associated with increases in rat populations, possibly due to the simultaneous disruption of rodent burrows and human granaries.
A mosaic of different communities and their respective networks formed a pattern of disease transmission in which social proximity had more effect than physical geography. (Members of Surat's working class communities are known to maintain close relationships with extended kin in their natal villages through regular visitation, such as observance of weddings and other life events)
The re-emergence of plague in western India after nearly three decades was a natural but unintended consequence of deliberate human actions taken in particular biosocial circumstances.
The rumor claimed that Muslim terrorists had poisoned the wells in revenge for violence received during a major riot in 1992. Events surrounding the 1992 violence may have influenced public response to the 1994 plague. Tensions between Hindu and Muslim communities were high.
The poisoning rumor persisted for a time even after newspapers first reported that the illnesses were due to plague, for the public had little trust in statements made by the media or government.
Had the government withheld its descision until all the WHO criteria were met, it could not have acted for weeks into the epidemic. Instead, the government erred in its diagnosis on the side of sensitivity and rapid response, an ?error? that ultimately proved correct. It would not have been realistic to withhold this information anyway, for the existing political conditions were such that even the suspicion of plague could not remain secret for long. The plague epidemic was a crisis of confidence as much as a crisis of public health. Far better to be forthcoming about the pathogen just as it was better to be forthcoming about the negligence from which it emerged. Such lessons apply to defense against future diseases, regardless of whether they are deliberately initiated.
The need for transparency may exceed the need for security. This is especially the case for public indentification of the disease. It was unlikely that the Indian authorities could have kept the plague a secret for long, and an earlier announcement could have given them the upper hand in the dissemination of accurate information.
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