ABSTRACT
Tick paralysis is a paralysis caused by bites from Ixodes holocyclus, affecting an estimated 10,000 companion animals in Australia annually. Despite tick antiserum being the cornerstone of treatment, there are no large-scale general practice studies that examine survival outcomes in tick antiserum-treated animals. In this retrospective study, clinical records from three far north Queensland general practice veterinary clinics were searched for tick antiserum-treated canine and feline patients were seen between 2000 and 2020. Patient records were assessed for survival outcomes, then logistic regression and Bayesian structural time-series model were used to assess trends in incidence and mortality and the relationship between these and time of year, rainfall, and species. The study included 2019 dog and 953 cat records. When patients with unknown outcomes were removed, canine mortality was 11.8% (213/1799) and feline mortality was 5.3% (46/872). Dogs were found to have 2.41 odds of dying following treatment than cats. August and September had the highest mean number of monthly treatments, and rainfall in the previous 5-8 months was positively correlated with the number of patients treated in each month. The odds of mortality did not vary significantly by month or season, and from 2015 onwards, there was a significant decrease in the proportion of dogs treated by the clinics. Overall, this study provides new information on tick antiserum treatment outcomes in general practice as well as new information on tick paralysis incidence in far north Queensland.
ABSTRACT
Infectious diseases are always keyed out by either epidemic or a pandemic. These are the words used for describing a disease outbreak. But, an epidemic and a pandemic describe different stages of disease in society. An epidemic is a disease outbreak that affects many individuals in an area, or a population and will affect many people concurrently and spread across different communities within a short period. Epidemic involves not only infectious diseases but all that deteriorates the health of a society and can follow predictable patterns and these trends are often used to monitor, predict, and control the spread of the infection. A pandemic is an epidemic that moves across the borders of different nations. Pandemic affects the wider geographical area and affects people around the world. The causative agent, probably a virus might infect people, spread faster among communities, and may result in a huge global death toll. The world since December 2019 is in the grips of the Covid-19 virus. In this paper, an attempt has been made to pinpoint and highlight the efforts made by the state of Kerala in tackling the pandemic of all times, Covid 19. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
The human diaspora started from the beginning of civilization but its intensity and speed were enhanced or induced by the advancement in the travel sector. Pandemics during human history indicated that diaspora is the main vector/tool of spreading among the millions. In this context, this chapter is focused to understand the perspective and conscious level of nations in the following four questions. 1. Is there any satisfactory technological advancement to identify the pandemic diseases of international travelers in the context of the developed stage of diaspora? 2. How the advanced technological development catalyzed the intensity and speed of dispersal mechanism of pandemic disease outbreaks like COVID-19? 3. Is there any apt security against pandemics among nations and how will it be formed? It was observed that, during the COVID-19 period, the immediate response of science and technology was not sufficient to ensure the security of the people in the context of diaspora. Even though nations had successfully developed bio-weapons through technological advancement, they had failed to guarantee security consciousness to their people. The diaspora of the present century is facing the extreme challenge of pandemic diseases because of the poor predictive mechanism on the evolution of microbes in the climatic changing scenario. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.