Despite advances in modern medicine, the power of plagues to terrify, disrupt and bring huge swings in morbidity and mortality in their wake remains potent. A Geography of Infection explores the spatial mechanisms by which infectious diseases, such as measles and influenza, can develop into epidemics and pandemics.

The last half century has witnessed two landmark events in medical history. The 1970s saw euphoria about the defeat of one of humankind's oldest disease scourges with the global eradication of smallpox. To set against this, the 2020s are experiencing the pandemic ravages of new viral diseases, of which COVID-19 is currently the most potent. But it is only the latest of a succession of threats. A Geography of Infection explores the distinctive spatial patterns and processes by which such infectious diseases spread from place to place and can grow from local and regional epidemics into global pandemics. This resource focuses initially on the local scale of doctors' practices and small islands where epidemic outbreaks are slight in the numbers infected and in geographical extent. Such local area studies raise two questions. First, how and where do epidemic diseases emerge and second, why do more diseases appear to be emerging now? To approach such questions implies a shift in spatial gear from painting epidemics with a fine-tipped local brush to an expanded palette on which doctors' practices and small islands are replaced by regional and global populations. Simultaneously, time bands are extended backwards to the origins of civilization and forwards into the twenty-first century. It eventually leads to a consideration of global pandemics - both historical (for example, plague, cholera and influenza) and contemporary (HIV/AIDS and COVID-19) and examines the ways the spread of infection can be prevented. All chapters are extensively illustrated with full-colour diagrams and maps - some of which are in colour for the first time. Bringing together the authors' collective 150 years of experience in research, mapping, and writing on spatial aspects of medical history, this is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the spread, control, and eradication of epidemic and pandemic diseases.

This concise and practical guide describes infections in geographical areas and provides information on disease risk, concomitant infections (such as co-prevalence of HIV and tuberculosis) and emerging bacterial, viral and parasitic infections in a given geographical area of the world. Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide is divided according to United Nations world regions and addresses geographic disease profiles, presenting symptoms and incubation periods of infections. Each chapter contains a section on the coverage of the childhood vaccination programs in the countries included in that region. Chapters also include descriptions of infectious disease risk and problems with resistant bacteria in each region (e.g. antibiotic resistance in Salmonella infections in Southeast Asia). For the clinician, this book is a tool to generate differential diagnoses by considering the geographical history, as well the presenting symptoms and duration of illness. For the travel medicine specialist, this book provides information on risks of different diseases at various destinations and is particularly useful in advising long-term travelers.

Down the ages, war epidemics have decimated the fighting strength of armies, caused the suspension and cancellation of military operations, and have brought havoc to the civil populations of belligerent and non-belligerent states alike. This book examines the historical occurrence and geographical spread of infectious diseases in association with past wars. It addresses an intrinsically geographical question: how are the spatial dynamics of epidemics influenced by military operations and the directives of war? The term historical geography in the title indicates the authors' primary concern with qualitative analyses of archival source materials over a 150-year time period from 1850, and this is combined with quantitative analyses less frequently associated with historical studies. Written from the viewpoints of historical geography, epidemiology, and spatial analysis, this book examines in four parts the historical occurrence and geographical spread of infectious diseases in association with wars. Part I: War and Disease, surveys war-disease associations from early times to 1850. Part II: Temporal Trends studies time trends since 1850. Part III: A Regional Pattern of War Epidemics, examines grand themes in the war-disease complex. Part IV: Prospects, considers a series of war-related issues of epidemiological significance in the twenty-first century.

The euphoria about the defeat of epidemics which surrounded the global eradication of smallpox in the 1970s proved short-lived. The advent of AIDS in the following decade, the widening spectrum of other newly-emergent diseases (from Ebola to Hanta virus), and the resurgence of old diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria all suggest that the threa

In Island Epidemics, the authors show that the complex warfare of invasion and extinction observed by Darwin for plants and animals applies with equal force to human diseases. A world picture is presented of diseases, which range from the familiar (influenza and German measles) to the exotic (kuru and tsutsugamushi), and islands which range in remoteness, from the accessible United Kingdom to the inaccessible Tristan da Cunha and Easter Island.

This text discusses the issues of geographical spread of human communicable diseases. Split into six chapters it tackles surveillance, quarantine, vaccination, and forecasting for disease control. A wide selection of representative maps and diagrams are used to illustrate the ideas explored.