Oral and laryngeal HPV infection: Incidence,prevalence and risk factors,with special regard to concurrent infection in head,neck and genitals

This review focuses on the importance of oral and laryngeal HPV infection which is present in majority of sexually active individuals at least once in their lifetime. Despite testing, still little is known about prevalence rates, determinants and, especially, the concurrent HPV infection in head and neck, and genitals. The purpose of this review is to clarify some issues of oral HPV incidence, prevalence, and to demonstrate the difficulties in identification of asymptomatic oral HPV carriers. The main premise to take up this topic is the high and still increasing risk for development of oropharyngeal cancer, and potential benefit from screening strategies, education programs and HPV vaccination.Transmission of HPV to the oral cavity and oropharynx is hypothesized to occur mainly through sexual contact. The exposure of oropharyngeal mucosa to HPV infection with consequence of increased risk for oropharyngeal carcinoma depends on specific sexual behavior. Male gender, older age, race or ethnicity, oral hygiene and current cigarette smoking are independently associated with any prevalent oral HPV infection.     

基于广州市聚集性疫情的新型冠状病毒传染力及续发率研究

目的 基于广州市新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）聚集性疫情,分析新型冠状病毒的传染力和续发率,为COVID-19疫情防控的策略提供参考依据。方法 对广州市COVID-19（确诊病例和无症状感染者）区分输入病例和本地病例,选择聚集性疫情首发病例为指示病例,以最短潜伏期1~3 d分别评估传染力和续发率。结果 截至2020年2月18日,广州市共报告新型冠状病毒感染病例349例,其中,确诊病例339例（占97.13%）,无症状感染者10例（占2.87%）。共报告聚集性疫情68起,涉及新型冠状病毒感染病例217例（确诊病例210例,无症状感染者7例）。每起聚集性疫情的新型冠状病毒感染例数中位数为3例,确诊病例数中位数为2例,无症状感染者数中位数为1例。最短潜伏期1~3 d的传染力平均值为2.18（即每起聚集性疫情中每个病例平均传染2.18人）,家庭成员传染力平均值为1.86,家庭成员传染力比例为85.32%（1.86/2.18）。最短潜伏期为1~3 d的全部密切接触者续发率为17.12%~18.99%,其中,家庭成员续发率为46.11%~49.56%。结论 广州市COVID-19聚集性疫情以家庭聚集性为主,传染力强,加强防控措施可有效控制社区传播。     

Prosper Lucas (1808–1885), l’aliéniste inspirateur de Charles Darwin

Prosper Lucas (1808–1885) was an alienist who in 1847 proposed an in-depth theory of heredity. This theory became, for more than half a century, the reference used by physicians and biologists in their work and research, but also by writers in their novels. Following a brief account of Lucas's life, this article will not only explore the ideas he developed on heredity but also the content of his interesting thesis on the imitation of behavior and the role of imitation in the origin of mental pathologies.     

Épidémies,contagiosité et idéologie au XIXe siècle… et au-delà

With the title “Anticontagionism between 1821–1867”, Erwin Ackerknecht's 1948 Fielding Garrison lecture to the American Association for the History of Medicine marked a milestone in the history of medicine by showing how medicine could be influenced by politics and ideology. His account tells of the quarrel, particularly lively in France, between supporters and opponents of contagionism, a quarrel which led to the official doctrine that major epidemic diseases were not contagious (this doctrine in the form of dogma was only abandoned at the end of the century thanks to the progress of medical knowledge). The order in which the Academy of Medicine reviewed the reports it had requested is important, from the first when Étienne Pariset was sent to Spain to study two epidemics of yellow fever and wrongly asserted the contagious nature of the infection (and this assertion was quickly challenged) to the second when it became aware of the unanimous anticontagionist reports of French doctors who had been working in Egypt on the victims of the plague epidemic of 1834–1835. The Academy, i.e. the elite of the profession, had forged an anticontagionist conviction which it asserted during the cholera epidemic of 1832 neglecting the contrary opinion of provincial practitioners. The anticontagionist dogma – and this is Ackerknecht's interpretation – came from the bourgeois and liberal convictions of its supporters. They considered contagionism to be a medieval doctrine which, in their view, neglected the lamentable living and housing conditions of the poorest, those who were the most numerous victims of the epidemics. Their liberal criticism also concerned the organisation of quarantines, which were considered inefficient and blocked trade. We would add that it was an elite with generous intentions and that it had cut itself off from ordinary people. The example of the recent epidemic of cholera in Haiti shows the ever-present risk of medical contamination by ideology and politics, and the absolute necessity of confronting theories with facts.