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1. Approaching the history of an Egyptian biomedicine

   https://doi.org/10.1111/hic3.12656  

   Derr, Jennifer L. (May 2021, History Compass)

   null (Ed.)

   This piece explores the history of medicine in Egypt, the roots of an Egyptian practice of biomedicine in particular, through its historiography. In the period after World War II, the term “biomedicine” came to describe a practice of medicine defined by the close relations among clinicians, biological laboratory research, and the pharmaceutical industry in Europe and the United States. The history of medicine in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa has long possessed close links to that in regions of Europe. In Egypt too, biomedicine has deep historical roots shaped by the influence of the nineteenth-century Ottoman‐Egyptian state, the experience of colonialism, and the anti‐colonial objectives of the post‐colonial Egyptian state in the second half of the twentieth century. These influences were particularly important in relation to the treatment of schistosomiasis, one of Egypt's top-ranking health problems of the twentieth century. The history of schistosomiasis demonstrates the gaps in the historiography of medicine in modern Egypt as well as how we might begin to consider the emergence of biomedical knowledge and theory at sites in Global South. 

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2. “The Dammed Body: Thinking Historically about Water Security and Public Health”

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01877  

   Derr, Jennifer L. (October 2021, Daedalus)

   This essay traces the historical relationship between the construction of the Nile River and the prevalence of disease in Egypt in the long twentieth century, with an eye to the relevance of this history to other regions on the African continent impacted by the construction of large dams. Beginning in the second decade of the nineteenth century and stretching through the 1970s, the Nile River underwent a dramatic process of transformation. Two large dams–the 1902 Khazan Aswan and the Aswan High Dam–were constructed on the river. Networks of perennial irrigation canals facilitated the practice of year-round agricultural production and the High Dam provided electricity. The remaking of Egypt’s riparian ecologies also had important implications for the health of Egypt’s population as these ecologies were associated with new landscapes of disease and approaches to biomedical treatment. 

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3. H ₂ in Antarctic firn air: Atmospheric reconstructions and implications for anthropogenic emissions

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103335118  

   Patterson, John D.; Aydin, Murat; Crotwell, Andrew M.; Pétron, Gabrielle; Severinghaus, Jeffrey P.; Krummel, Paul B.; Langenfelds, Ray L.; Saltzman, Eric S. (August 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   The atmospheric history of molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) from 1852 to 2003 was reconstructed from measurements of firn air collected at Megadunes, Antarctica. The reconstruction shows that H 2 levels in the southern hemisphere were roughly constant near 330 parts per billion (ppb; nmol H 2 mol −1 air) during the mid to late 1800s. Over the twentieth century, H 2 levels rose by about 70% to 550 ppb. The reconstruction shows good agreement with the H 2 atmospheric history based on firn air measurements from the South Pole. The broad trends in atmospheric H 2 over the twentieth century can be explained by increased methane oxidation and anthropogenic emissions. The H 2 rise shows no evidence of deceleration during the last quarter of the twentieth century despite an expected reduction in automotive emissions following more stringent regulations. During the late twentieth century, atmospheric CO levels decreased due to a reduction in automotive emissions. It is surprising that atmospheric H 2 did not respond similarly as automotive exhaust is thought to be the dominant source of anthropogenic H 2. The monotonic late twentieth century rise in H 2 levels is consistent with late twentieth-century flask air measurements from high southern latitudes. An additional unknown source of H 2 is needed to explain twentieth-century trends in atmospheric H 2 and to resolve the discrepancy between bottom-up and top-down estimates of the anthropogenic source term. The firn air–based atmospheric history of H 2 provides a baseline from which to assess human impact on the H 2 cycle over the last 150 y and validate models that will be used to project future trends in atmospheric composition as H 2 becomes a more common energy source. 

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4. Examination of Staphylococcus aureus Prophages Circulating in Egypt

   https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020337  

   Ene, Adriana; Miller-Ensminger, Taylor; Mores, Carine R.; Giannattasio-Ferraz, Silvia; Wolfe, Alan J.; Abouelfetouh, Alaa; Putonti, Catherine (February 2021, Viruses)

   null (Ed.)

   Staphylococcus aureus infections are of growing concern given the increased incidence of antibiotic resistant strains. Egypt, like several other countries, has seen alarming increases in methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections. This species can rapidly acquire genes associated with resistance, as well as virulence factors, through mobile genetic elements, including phages. Recently, we sequenced 56 S. aureus genomes from Alexandria Main University Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt, complementing 17 S. aureus genomes publicly available from other sites in Egypt. In the current study, we found that the majority (73.6%) of these strains contain intact prophages, including Biseptimaviruses, Phietaviruses, and Triaviruses. Further investigation of these prophages revealed evidence of horizontal exchange of the integrase for two of the prophages. These Egyptian S. aureus prophages are predicted to encode numerous virulence factors, including genes associated with immune evasion and toxins, including the Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL)-associated genes lukF-PV/lukS-PV. Thus, prophages are likely to be a major contributor to the virulence of S. aureus strains in circulation in Egypt. 

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5. Reducing childhood mortality extends mothers’ lives

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-61217-w  

   Zipple, Matthew N (December 2024, Scientific Reports)

   Abstract During the twentieth century, childhood mortality was dramatically reduced globally, falling by more than 90% in the United States and much of Europe. Total fertility also fell, with the combined result that many parents who otherwise would have experienced the loss of a child were spared the trauma and negative health consequences that accompany such a loss. Here I use mathematical modeling to argue that the reduction in the frequency of child death that occurred in the twentieth century indirectly led to a substantial reduction in female mortality, resulting in an extension of female lifespan. I estimate that the reduction in maternal bereavement in the US during the twentieth century indirectly increased mean female lifespan after age 15 by approximately 1 year. I discuss implications for our understanding of the persistence of the sex gap in longevity and approaches to improving maternal health outcomes in countries that still face high levels of childhood mortality. 

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