Deciphering Global Epidemics
Analytical Approaches to the Disease Records of World Cities, 1888–1912

Using data collected for 350 cities, the authors look at trends in global mortality at the turn of the century.

Andrew Cliff (Author), Peter Haggett (Author), Matthew Smallman-Raynor (Author)

9780521478601, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 August 1998

496 pages, 11 b/w illus. 43 tables
23 x 15.4 x 3.1 cm, 0.795 kg

"This work, which folds together the fields of geopgraphy, history, demography, economics, epidemiology, and public health (among others), is interdisciplinary history at its best." Kenneth F. Kiple, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Using data collected for 350 cities from around the world, the authors use a variety of analytical methods to provide a global picture of what was happening to infectious epidemic diseases at a critical period in urban evolution on the international stage. The diseases considered are diphtheria, enteric fever, measles, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. To place the results in a wider time context, other data are used to look both backwards and forwards for nearly a century on either side of the twenty-five-year time window. The book presents a number of results that may be interpreted in the context of debates on the causes of long-term mortality decline from these infectious diseases. It will be of interest to students of demography, history of medicine, and economic history as well as to researchers already active in these fields.

List of figures
List of plates
List of tables
Foreword
Preface
1. Prologue: epidemics past
2. The nature of the evidence
3. The global sample: an overall picture
4. Epidemic trends: a global synthesis
5. Comparing world regions
6. The individual city record
7. Epidemics: looking forwards
Appendices
References.

Subject Areas: Epidemiology & medical statistics [MBNS]