Critical Literature Review on Infectious Diseases From the 17th and 18th Centuries

Background and Introduction

Several infectious disease outbreaks have occurred in the twenty-first century, including the most recent coronavirus pandemic, which significantly impacted human life and the way of life across the globe. Other current infectious diseases that have caused havoc to the livelihood of humans in the twenty-first century include the 2009 swine flu, West Africa’s 2013 Ebola virus, and the 2015 Zika virus disease epidemic (Baker et al. 193). All these current infectious diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality and affect people across the globe. Likewise, in the past few decades, infectious diseases have been brought by varying factors, such as unprecedented demographic and climatic changes. In the 17^th century, fevers and dysentery plagued settlements. From the early 18^th century through the early 19^th century, polio, smallpox, influenza, yellow fever, cholera, and Diphtheria affected the human population. (Rosenberg S4). The literature review will cover how founder writers laid a base on infectious diseases, the controversy between scholars, and the relevant issues arising on disease progression between the 17 and 18th centuries.

How do these sources extend the work of founding researchers?

Pathogens have been studied since ancient times, and current literature extends the understanding of how pathogens cause diseases and the different mutations. The review pays particular attention to pathogen species that have just lately been found to be, for the first time, linked to an infectious disease in humans. According to the article, not all pathogens are new; the pathogens that cause some infectious diseases, such as influenza, have been lately. The article extends the research of founding scientists on new genes that frequently reassort with mammalian influenza genes in influenza viruses pandemics, which typically occur from avian viruses (Relman et al. 200). The publication advances the study that the influenza virus is occasionally transferred from avian to human which is not a very common occurrence.

Public Health Scotland’s research studies advanced research on the negative implications of infectious illnesses outbreaks. It studies the effects of past infectious disease epidemics on the health outcomes of non-communicable diseases. It is the topic of a study that expands upon the initial research conducted. It is essential since the findings of the work could aid in reducing the short and long-term effects of viral pandemics such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic on both the general population and a specific population. According to the article, the long-term consequences of earlier epidemics stay unknown due to the paucity of comprehensive follow-up studies (Scobie and Whitehead 3). Previous studies discovered that the effects of infectious diseases were typically short-lived, with recovery occurring after the outbreaks stopped. The article, therefore, furthers these studies and a collection of publications on infectious disease follow-up. The health and social implications of the people who were, for instance, affected by the eighteenth-century Spanish flu virus are examined in the literature review. The source is, therefore, essential as it goes beyond the immediate impacts of utero exposure and provides the fundamental reasoning that infectious disease outbreaks have detrimental long-term effects in addition to the immediate ones.

How do scholars disagree or contrast with one another?

The scholars also contrast with each other since the reviews of their work point out that the percentage of infectious diseases that result in epidemics has always been apparent and culturally significant. The publisher of The Economic History Society literature review and Rosenberg’s work, Sitting Epidemic Disease: 3 Centuries of American History, share findings that before the twentieth century, infectious diseases accounted for the majority of fatalities (Shaw-Taylor E2). Infectious diseases in the 17^th and 18^th centuries were episodic, unforeseen, and frightening. As a result, they were evident in contrast to other diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria, which claimed lives and disabled people every year but seemed among the unavoidable and thus tolerable illnesses in life (Rosenberg S4). According to another study, in the 17^th century, smallpox caused several deaths to those who contracted the infectious disease, and among the survivors, suffering was also immense (Hasselgren 2838). These findings suggest a potential new phase of infectious diseases characterized by the rapid worldwide spread of endemic, re-endemic, and emerging pathogen outbreaks with changed geographic distributions brought on by climate change. According to a study, “The Smallpox Epidemics in America in the 1700s”, investigating infectious disease pandemics in the 17^th century, smallpox caused several deaths to those who contracted the infectious disease (Hasselgren 2838).

The scholarly work by the various authors concludes that infectious disease is one of the paradigms that caused a catastrophe considering the influenza pandemic. According to Relman et al. (195), the 20^th century has had the worst infectious disease breakouts as data show that in both developing nations and first-world countries, pandemics counter most deaths on a constant rise. The rise results from various variables, including international travel, trade, and ecological factors, which precipitate and enable the emergence of different infectious diseases in the current periods compared to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The reviews also have a typical relationship that indicates that interspecies transfer is responsible for facilitating emerging infectious diseases.

Highlight relevant issues based on the progress of diseases from the 17th and 18th centuries

New disease progress has emerged, with others worsening conditions and others improving. Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis in the early seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were worsened by concerns such as proper nutrition. However, there has been significant progress resulting from human intervention to decrease infectious diseases. Improvements in housing, employment condition, isolation of patients with suspected infectious diseases, and healthcare standards progress that requires certain practices, such as pasteurization of milk, have seen significant milestones in several infectious diseases (Mackenbach 1200). This progress has helped witness a decline in tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

Vaccination is tremendous progress made in the viral illness sector with the great emergence and facilitation of infectious diseases from the 17^th and 18th centuries. Vaccination is one of the most effective medical interventions that has saved millions of lives in the current times compared to the past centuries when exercise was not very active. Numerous vaccine-preventable infectious diseases such as covid-19, Diphtheria, and flu have had highly maintained coverages due to the establishment of routine immunization programs in several countries around the globe and in Europe, where the exercise is major ( Holzmann and Wiedermann 1). Immunization and vaccination are currently being made a requirement to manage and protect individuals from various infectious diseases. Therefore, vaccination is one of the progress made in the field of infectious disease that remains very effective in stimulating immune responses against infections.

The creation of diagnostic instruments is one of the most cutting-edge developments that date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Improvements in immunochemical methods, which use highly pathogen-specific antibodies, have contributed to better control of infectious illness agents. Selecting an ideal carrier (a delivery mechanism) to deliver an antibody or vaccine is crucial in ensuring a solid immunological response. The T cell that gradually loses its effector function with higher coinhibitory receptor constitutive expression in a chronic viral infection caused by long-term and low-magnitude antigen exposure to reduce tissue damage is known as “T-cell exhaustion.” Therefore, changing the T-cell status is a successful treatment for infectious disorders (Cai 17). These adjuvant carriers can lodge antigens at the injection site, improve how well they are presented to immune-competent cells, and trigger the release of crucial cytokines. Various nanoscale particle carriers stand out as particularly interesting in this regard. These nanocarriers can be employed as adjuvants in developing new vaccinations and antibodies. Studies on the impact of the dispersion of metal particles on immune system cells started about the same time (Dykman 465). Significant progress has been made in recent decades in understanding the immunogenicity of nanoparticles, immune cells’ reaction, the dynamics of immunomodulation and immunosuppression, and nanoparticle cyto- and immunotoxicity. These innovations have been crucial in improving the treatment of infectious diseases, including the severe viral infections like influenza that plagued the early centuries.

Conclusion

In summary, the publications and sources reviewed on infectious diseases over time have some relationships that point out similarities and differences in the findings. Additionally, war and other reasons contributed to the disastrous global spread of contagious diseases in premodern times. Before the development of vaccines, common human diseases like tuberculosis, polio, smallpox, and Diphtheria caused significant morbidity and mortality. The mortality and morbidity associated with infectious diseases, notably respiratory and diarrheal diseases, have decreased due to modern medical advancements, access to health care, and improved sanitation. Although neglected tropical diseases like HIV and tuberculosis continue to have high mortality and morbidity rates, the burden of infectious diseases is still significant in low- and lower-middle-income nations.

I have noticed a gap: the primary sources I am working with have not been thoroughly analyzed in this capacity before. There are uncovered research areas within my primary sources that need further investigation. I would need to explore the current sources of my research further, take the existing research, and further expand some open-ended questions to refine this topic.

Work Cited

Dykman, Lev A. “Gold nanoparticles for preparation of antibodies and vaccines against infectious diseases.” Expert review of vaccines 19.5 2020: 465–477.

Shaw‐Taylor, Leigh. “An introduction to the history of infectious diseases, epidemics and the early phases of the long‐run decline in mortality.” The Economic History Review 73.3 2020: E1-E19.

Relman, D. A., M. A. Hamburg, and E. R. Choffnes. “Infectious disease emergence: past, present, and future.” Microbial evolution and co-adaptation: a tribute to the life and scientific legacies of Joshua Lederberg. Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2009): 193-273.

Scobie, G., and R. Whitehead. “What are the impacts of past infectious disease outbreaks on non-communicable health outcomes.” Edinburgh: Public Health Scotland 2020: 3.

Mackenbach, Johan P. “The rise and fall of diseases: reflections on the history of population health in Europe since ca. 1700.” European journal of epidemiology 36.12 2021: 1199–1205.

Holzmann, Heidemarie, and Ursula Wiedermann. “Mandatory vaccination: suited to enhance vaccination coverage in Europe?.” Eurosurveillance 24.26 (2019): 1900376.

Hasselgren, Per-Olof. “The Smallpox Epidemics in America in the 1700s and the Role of the Surgeons: Lessons to be Learned During the Global Outbreak of COVID-19.” World Journal of Surgery 44.9 (2020): 2837-2841.

Baker, Rachel E., et al. “Infectious disease in an era of global change.” Nature Reviews Microbiology 20.4 (2022): 193–205.

Rosenberg, Charles E. “Siting epidemic disease: 3 centuries of American history.” The Journal of infectious diseases 197.Supplement_1 2008: S4-S6.

Cai, Xin, et al. “Current progress and future perspectives of immune checkpoint in cancer and infectious diseases.” Frontiers in Genetics 12 (2021): 785153.