Ricerc@Sapienza

La storia della medicina occidentale racconta spesso e sempre con toni drammatici gli avvenimenti epidemici. Il capitolo prende in considerazione la storia delle epidemie dal punto di vista della fenomenologia del contagio e delle epidemie come crisi di sistema

Purpose: In the last years, the consumption of opioid analgesics in western countries, particularly in USA, has dramatically increased, and this rise has been paralleled by a proportional number of opioid-related deaths. To response to this health crisis, opioid guidelines have been developed to reduce the risk of harm related to opioid prescribing. Many activities have been suggested to face opioid epidemic. Clinicians should find a proper balance that meets the patient’s need for pain relief while minimizing abuse.

PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection represents
a global health problem; it can be transmitted through contact
with infected blood or other body fluids and it is dangerous
being highly contagious. Hepatitis B is preventable with effective
vaccine, as it is strongly recommended by the World
Health Organization; its protection is possibly life-long, at least
20 years. Mathematical modelling is a useful tool to study the
evolution of an epidemic spread and possibly to suggest suitable

In the last twenty years, despite high vaccination coverage, epidemics of pertussis are occurring in both developing and developed countries. Many reasons could explain the pertussis resurgence: the increasing awareness of the disease, the availability of new diagnostic tests with higher sensitivity, the emergence of new Bordetella pertussis (B. pertussis) strains different from those contained in the current vaccines, the asymptomatic transmission of B. pertussis in adolescents and adults and the shorter duration of protection given by the acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine.