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Author Homei, Aya, author

Title Fungal disease in Britain and the United States 1850-2000 : mycoses and modernity / Aya Homei and Michael Worboys
Published Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
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Description 1 online resource (1 PDF file (xii, 225 pages)) : illustrations
Series Science, technology and medicine in modern history
Science, technology, and medicine in modern history.
Contents Ringworm: A Disease of Schools and Schooling -- Athlete's Foot: A Disease of Fitness and Hygiene -- Candida: A Disease of Antibiotics -- Endemic Mycoses, Mycotoxins and Allergies: Diseases of Social Change -- Aspergillosis: A Disease of Medical Progress
Summary In this book, we discuss the changing medical and public profile of fungal infections in the period 1850-2000. We consider four sets of diseases: ringworm and athlete's foot (dermatophytosis); thrush or candidiasis (infection with Candida albicans); endemic, geographically specific infections in North America (coccidioidomycosis, blastomycosis and histoplasmosis) and mycotoxins; and aspergillosis (infection with Aspergillus fumigatus). We discuss each disease in relation to developing medical knowledge and practices, and to social changes associated with 'modernity'. Thus, mass schooling provided ideal conditions for the spread of ringworm of the scalp in children, and the rise of college sports and improvement of personal hygiene led to the spread of athlete's foot. Antibiotics seemed to open the body to more serious Candida infections, as did new methods to treat cancers and the development of transplantation. Regional fungal infections in North America came to the fore due to the economic development of certain regions, where population movement brought in non-immune groups who were vulnerable to endemic mycoses. Fungal toxins or mycotoxins were discovered as by-products of modern food storage and distribution technologies. Lastly, the rapid development and deployment of new medical technologies, such as intensive care and immunosuppression in the last quarter of the twentieth century, increased the incidence of aspergillosis and other systemic mycoses
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (OAPEN, viewed July 8, 2016)
Subject Mycoses -- history.
Antifungal Agents -- history.
History, 19th Century.
History, 20th Century.
Mycoses -- Great Britain -- History.
Neglected Diseases -- history.
Mycoses -- United States -- History.
SUBJECT United Kingdom. https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D006113
United States. https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D014481
Genre/Form History.
Form Electronic book
Author Worboys, Michael, 1948- author
LC no. 2014000977
ISBN 113737702X (ePDF)
1137377038 (epub)
9781137377029 (ePDF)
9781137377036 (epub)
(hardback)
(hardback)
(paperback)