Plagues and Peoples
Anthropology 3560
Fall 2008
Professor L. Sattenspiel……SattenspielL@missouri.edu……206 Swallow Hall
Office Hrs: M 2-4, R 10:30-12 and by appointment
Teaching Assistants:
Karen Slonim
208 Swallow Hall
ks9c3@mizzou.edu
MW 11-12 and by appt.
April Bass
201 Swallow Hall
arbxrb@mizzou.edu
TR 12:15-1:15 and by appt.
Carolyn Giroux
212 Swallow Hall
clg21d@mizzou.edu
T 11-1 and by appt.
This course is a broad overview of the ecology of the human host-pathogen interaction and the
influence of human culture and biology on the transmission and geographic spread of infectious
diseases through time and in different environments. Studies of the ecology, evolution, and history
of specific diseases, such as bubonic plague, smallpox, influenza, yellow fever, and HIV, will be
used to illustrate and reinforce general concepts.
Topics to be covered:
I.
The biology of infectious diseases
a. The nature of host-pathogen interactions
b. Infectious disease epidemiology
c. The impact of culture on the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases
II.
Human infectious diseases through time
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
III.
Diseases in prehistory
The origins of agriculture and infectious disease patterns
The rise of cities and disease transmission
Colonization and changing disease patterns
The epidemiological transition
Infectious diseases in the 21st century — the major issues
The geography of infectious diseases
a. Global patterns of spread of infectious disease
b. Infectious disease transmission within households, communities, and regions
IV.
Understanding the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases
a.
b.
c.
d.
Climate change, environmental disruption, and infectious disease
Social inequalities and infectious disease transmission and control
Antibiotic resistance
Bioterrorism and the future
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 2
Textbooks
Crawford, Dorothy H (2000) The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses Oxford: Oxford
University Press. (primarily Aug 25-Sep 26; some sections may also be relevant during
the second half of the course)
Barnes, Ethne (2005) Diseases and Human Evolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press.
Electronic Reserve (listed in the order in which they will be covered — dates are
approximate)
Farmer, Paul (1996) Social inequalities and emerging infectious diseases. Emerging Infectious
Diseases 2(4). http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol2no4/farmer.htm (Oct 15-17)
Prothero, R Mansell (1977) Disease and mobility: a neglected factor in epidemiology.
International Journal of Epidemiology 6:259-267. (Oct 29)
Cliff, Andrew D and Peter Haggett (2004) Time, travel and infection. British Medical Bulletin
69:87-99. (Oct 31)
Sattenspiel, Lisa and Christopher Powell (1993) Geographic spread of measles on the island of
Dominica, West Indies. Human Biology 65(1):107-29. (Nov 3)
Herring, D Ann and Lisa Sattenspiel (2007) Social context, syndemics, and infectious disease in
northern aboriginal populations American Journal of Human Biology 19:190-202. (Nov 7)
Palmer, Craig, Lisa Sattenspiel, and Chris Cassidy (2007) Boats, trains, and immunity: the spread
of the Spanish flu on the island of Newfoundland. Newfoundland and Labrador Studies
22(2):473-504. (Nov 10)
Patz, JA and SH Olson (2006) Climate change and health: global to local influences on disease
risk. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 100(5-6):535-549. (Nov 19)
Greer, Amy, Victoria Ng, and David Fisman (2008) Climate change and infectious diseases in
North America: the road ahead. CMAJ 178(6):715-722. (Nov 19-21)
Wolfe, Nathan D, Peter Daszak, A Marm Kilpatrick, and Donald S Burke (2005) Bushmeat
hunting, deforestation, and prediction of zoonotic disease emergence. Emerging Infectious
Diseases 11(12):1822-1827. (Nov 21)
Tuckel, Peter, Sharon Sassler, Richard Maisel, and Andrew Leykam (2006) The diffusion of the
influenza pandemic of 1918 in Hartford, Connecticut. Social Science History 30(2):167-196.
(Dec 1)
Larson, Elaine (2007) Community factors in the development of antibiotic resistance. Annual
Review of Public Health 28:435-447. (Dec 3)
Fattorini, Lanfranco, Giovanni Battista Migliori, and Antonio Cassone (2007) Extensively drugresistant (XDR) tuberculosis: an old and new threat. Annali dell’Instituto Superiore di Sanità
43(4):317-319. (Dec 5)
Beeching, Nicholas J, David AB Dance, Alastair Miller, and Robert O Spencer (2002) Biological
warfare and bioterrorism. British Medical Journal 324:336-339. (Dec 10)
Hilleman, Maurice R (2002) Overview: cause and prevention in biowarfare and bioterrorism.
Vaccine 20:3055-3067. (Dec 10)
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 3
These readings are intended to provide you with resources to use in preparing your papers
and understanding lecture material. The nature of the Crawford and Barnes books is such that it is
not easy to assign specific readings for specific dates. Broadly speaking, topics in Crawford will
be covered through the end of September, readings from Barnes will be scattered throughout the
course, and the electronic reserve (ER) readings will be used in the second half of the course. The
ER readings correspond clearly to particular topics covered in lecture and will provide additional
background to reinforce the lecture material.
To access the readings on electronic reserve you need to go to the MU libraries home page
(you can link to this page from within Blackboard or go directly to it on your web browser). Click
on “Electronic Reserves”. If you are on campus this will take you to the ER home page. If you are
off campus this will take you to a proxy server. To access the ER site from off campus do the
following: 1) install a security certificate (if you have already done this for another class you will
not need to do it again), and 2) enter your pawprint and password (always needed). The ER page
for this course is password-protected; the password is “tinybug”.
Online resources
Both online and library resources should be used to prepare your papers. However, every
effort must be made to use high quality online sources, and to avoid the use of personal web sites
and biased information. In addition, each written assignment must include at least one source
that is not a web-only source (i.e., not an organization’s or individual’s web page). This source
should preferably be an article from a scholarly journal, rather than a book. As a general guideline,
you should plan on at least as many references as there are pages in your paper.
The quality of your sources may affect your final paper grade if they consist only of web sites,
popular, and/or secondary sources. (Note: Like any other encyclopedia, Wikipedia is considered to
be a secondary source.) All sources used in writing your papers should be properly cited within the
text and in the bibliography at the end of your paper. If you need help in learning how to find
suitable sources, make sure you attend one of the help sessions held at the beginning of the semester
(see additional handout).
Good disease websites (many others are possible):
World Health Organization (WHO): http://www.who.int
Centers for Disease Control (CDC): http://www.cdc.gov
Health Canada: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO): http://www.paho.org
Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/index.htm
Weekly Epidemiological Record: http://www.who.int/wer/
Intute Medical History page: http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/medhist/
History of Diseases: http://www.mic.ki.se/HistDis.html
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 4
All the Virology on the WWW: http://www.virology.net/
Textbook of Bacteriology: http://www.textbookofbacteriology.net/
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 5
Course requirements
At the beginning of the semester you will be assigned a particular disease to study throughout
the semester. Written assignments consist of three short papers, all on your assigned disease. All
students must revise the first paper; rewrites are optional for students receiving a grade in the A
range on the draft of the second paper; rewriting is optional for all students on the third paper. If
you choose to forego an optional revision, then the final letter grade on that paper will be equal to
the letter grade received on the first draft (with the numerical equivalencies shown below).
The papers will focus on information about your assigned disease that is relevant to topics
discussed in class (see below for paper guidelines). An extra credit option is also available (see
guidelines below). You may work with up to two other students on the extra credit project.
Towards the end of the semester we will schedule an evening “disease revue”, which is
required as part of the extra credit option.
It is common for infectious diseases to have several different names. When you are looking
for resources on your disease make sure you search for variant terms and spellings as well as the
term assigned to you. If you are not sure you can find enough on your disease, contact Sattenspiel
about the possibility of changing your disease. This must be done before completing the draft of
the first paper, however, so check for suitable resources for all papers early in the semester.
All papers are due at the beginning of class on the day indicated in the paper guidelines below.
Because this is a writing intensive class, it is essential that all papers be turned in on time.
Consequently, you will be penalized three points per class period for papers not turned in by the
due date and time.
In addition to the short papers, a midterm and final exam will be given. The midterm is
scheduled in class on Monday, October 13; the final exam will be on Wednesday, December 17
from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. These exams will consist of definitions, short answer questions, and one
or two longer essays. All exam questions will be drawn from study guides that will be given out
during the first week of class (for the midterm) and right after the midterm (for the final exam).
First drafts of papers are worth 40 points and final drafts are worth 60 points. The midterm and
final are each worth 50 points and the extra credit will be worth up to 20 points. Letter grades will
be assigned to papers with the following point equivalencies:
Grade
A+
A
A–
B+
B
B–
C+
C
C–
D+
First draft
40
38
37
35
34
33
31
30
29
27
Final draft
60
57
55
53
51
49
47
45
43
41
Summary of grading
40 points each for 3 first drafts = 120
60 points each for 3 final drafts = 180
50 pt midterm, 50 pt final exam = 100
TOTAL POINTS = 400
Extra Credit option — up to 20 points
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 6
D
D–
26
25
39
37
Final grades will be based on a straight 90/80/70/60% scale and +/- grading will be used.
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 7
If you need accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical
information that your instructors must know about, or if you need special arrangements in case
the building must be evacuated, please inform Sattenspiel after class or during office hours. To
request academic accommodations (for example, a notetaker), you must also register with
Disability Services, AO38 Brady Commons, 882-4696. It is the campus office responsible for
reviewing documentation provided by students requesting academic accommodations, and for
accommodations planning in cooperation with students and instructors, as needed and consistent
with course requirements.
You are expected to observe the University’s standards for academic behavior. Academic
dishonesty refers to ANY act that is intended to produce a grade that does not reflect a student’s
performance, or any act that is intended to unfairly assist or hinder a student’s performance. Such
acts include, but are not limited to:




Using someone else’s ideas without full attribution
Unauthorized possession of resources (e.g., reserve readings, computer software, medical
excuses, etc.) or hindering another student’s access to resources
Allowing someone else to take your tests for you
Using unauthorized aids during a quiz or exam (e.g., cell phones, pagers, palm pilots,
ipods, etc.)
Do not succumb to the temptations of cutting-and-pasting materials from electronic sources.
It is much easier than you think to identify such activities, and plagiarism will not be tolerated.
The course Blackboard page contains links to resources about plagiarism, but don’t hesitate to
seek our help if you are in doubt about what constitutes plagiarism and what are appropriate
levels of paraphrasing, quoting, or collaboration.
Any student suspected of academic dishonesty will be asked to discuss the allegation with
Sattenspiel. If it is determined that an infraction has, in fact, occurred, a suitable sanction (at the
minimum a reduction in or loss of all points on the assignment in question) will be agreed upon
and a report will be sent to the Provost’s office.
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 8
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 9
Specific guidelines for written assignments
Paper # 1
Write a 3-4 page paper about the ecology, biology, and transmission of your pathogen.
Make sure your paper is a well-written, cohesive essay that informs your friends and family about
the most essential information on the biology of the pathogen (assume your audience doesn’t have
a strong background in biology). The list below gives examples of topics to include (others are
possible). Make sure you discuss and explain each topic you address — sketchy answers will help
neither your unschooled readers nor your grade.
Mode of transmission
Stages of the infection process with symptoms and length
Identity and characteristics of the causal organism
Who gets sick and why
Ecological factors that influence transmission
Rates of mortality
Treatment and prognosis
Draft due Monday, September 15; Final version due Monday, September 29
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Paper #2
Write a 4-5 page paper on the history and geographic distribution of your disease. In your
history section include a discussion of when the disease was discovered and/or recognized and by
whom, how long it has been present in human populations, and the history of attempts to deal
with the disease. For some diseases the history may extend far back into the human past, for
others the history may only be a few years or decades. Cover the known time span of your
disease in your paper.
In your geography section discuss the global distribution of your disease and reasons for
that distribution, the kinds of factors that influence where your disease is found and how it
spreads at the community level, and the factors influencing within household transmission. You
may find that there is more information about some of these levels of transmission than others,
but make sure you address each one, even if there is little direct information. Support your ideas
about the disease’s distribution with references to relevant scholarly sources if possible, but if this
is not possible then come up with original ideas that are based on your knowledge of the biology
and history of the disease, with relevant citations to those sources. Of course, original supported
ideas are always welcome, even if you are able to identify appropriate sources.
The Cambridge History of Human Disease, edited by Kenneth Kiple, is an important
reference that you can check for information on your disease (although it is not the only one you
should use). It is at the medical school library and is available for use only at that library – ask at
the reference desk where it is kept. It is also available at my office. Note: this is an edited
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 10
volume. Most of the articles are written by others, and if that is the case, then you cite that person
in your text and use the format for edited volumes in your bibliography.
Draft due Wednesday, November 5; Final version due Monday, November 17
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 11
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Paper #3
Pick a hot topic of relevance to your disease (one that scientists have considered within the
last few years) and write a 3-4 page paper on that topic. Focus on the topic itself, but make sure
you include a BRIEF explanation of why you chose that topic and why it is interesting and
important. Make sure you include at least two references that were published within the last 10
years and that you have a total of at least 3-4 references.
Draft due Monday, December 1; Final version due Wednesday, December 10
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Extra Credit
You may either work alone or in a group of up to three students to complete one of the following
options:
Option 1: Prepare a pamphlet or fact sheet on the assigned disease of one of the students in your
group. Your pamphlet should be written at a level that would be interesting to and understood by
junior high aged students and should include pertinent illustrations. Provide as much
information about your disease as you think is necessary in order for the students to gain a basic
understanding of what the disease is, where it is found, how it is transmitted, and how it is
treated. Creativity is a plus, as long as the essential content is present. Remember also that
pamphlets usually present a significant amount of information in a minimum number of words
and often use illustrations to communicate essential ideas in an interesting way.
Option 2: Prepare a 10-minute powerpoint presentation, video, or skit on the assigned disease of
one of the students in your group outlining the same information as described in Option 1.
Option 3: Design some kind of visual exhibit (poster, panorama, model---be creative!) that
communicates essential information about the assigned disease of one of the students in your
group.
We will schedule one or more evening “disease revues” at which you will present your project
(you present only once). If you choose option 1, you need only bring enough copies of your
pamphlet to distribute to the audience at the revue. If you choose option 2, you will give your
presentation/skit during our revue. If you choose option 3, you will exhibit your project at the
revue. The revue(s) will be held in early to mid-November.
You must turn in a preliminary statement that you plan to complete the extra credit project,
which option you plan to do, and who you plan to work with no later than October 1. Your
final decision to pursue the extra credit project is due on October 27, and the project itself is
due the day you present at the “disease revue”. You MUST participate in a revue in order to
receive extra credit.
Sattenspiel
Plagues and Peoples, p. 12