Critical reviews in microbiology
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Accounts of drinking water-borne disease outbreaks have always captured the interest of the public, elected and health officials, and the media. During the twentieth century, the drinking water community and public health organizations have endeavored to craft regulations and guidelines on treatment and management practices that reduce risks from drinking water, specifically human pathogens. ⋯ These misunderstanding or "myths" have led to confusion among the many stakeholders. The purpose of this article is to provide a scientific- and clinically-based discussion of these "myths" and recommendations for better ensuring the microbial safety of drinking water and valid public health decisions.
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Crit. Rev. Microbiol. · Aug 2010
ReviewEmergence of viral diseases: mathematical modeling as a tool for infection control, policy and decision making.
Mathematical modeling can be used for the development and implementation of infection control policy to combat outbreaks and epidemics of communicable viral diseases. Here an outline is provided of basic concepts and approaches used in mathematical modeling and parameterization of disease transmission. The use of mathematical models is illustrated, using the 2001 UK foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epidemic, the 2003 global severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, and human influenza pandemics, as examples. This provides insights in the strengths, limitations, and weaknesses of the various models, and demonstrates their potential for supporting policy and decision making.
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Crit. Rev. Microbiol. · Jan 2006
Historical ArticleThe anti-plague system and the Soviet biological warfare program.
The USSR possessed a unique national public health system that included an agency named "anti-plague system." Its mission was to protect the country from highly dangerous diseases of either natural or laboratory etiology. During the 1960s, the anti-plague system became the lead agency of a program to defend against biological warfare, codenamed Project 5. This responsibility grew and by the middle 1970s came to include undertaking tasks for the offensive biological warfare program, codenamed Ferment. This article describes the anti-plague system's activities relevant to both aspects of the Soviet Union's biological warfare program, offense and defense, and analyzes its contributions to each.
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Crit. Rev. Microbiol. · Jan 2006
Historical ArticleGenesis of the anti-plague system: the Tsarist period.
Although the anti-plague system of the former Soviet Union developed fully during the Soviet era, its foundations were laid long before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. This article traces the evolution of the anti-plague measures from imposition of temporary quarantine in affected areas to the creation of the standard response system and the establishment of permanent anti-plague organizations. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that by the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, despite numerous setbacks, the Russian imperial authorities succeeded in creating a nascent system of disease surveillance dedicated to protecting the population from especially dangerous infectious diseases such as plague.
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Crit. Rev. Microbiol. · Jan 1998
Review Historical ArticleThe application of the UNSCOM experience to international biological arms control. United Nations Special Commission.
The activities of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), which has investigated Iraq's biological weapons program, is presented as a model for international arms control. A detailed first-hand description and evaluation of UNSCOM's activities shows that its success depended on the quality of the inspectors and their human intelligence capacity. Discrepancies in Iraq's extensive and well-concealed biological weapons program was the key to revelation of the extent of the Iraqi biological weapons program. Each step in UNSCOM's painstaking investigation of the Iraqi program is discussed.