Response to “Metaphorically or Not, Violence Is Not a Contagious Disease”

Slutkin, Gary; Ransford, Charles; Zvetina, Daria

doi:10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.5.corr2-1805

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Furthermore, The World Health Organization (WHO) identified violence as a risk factor for increased communicable disease [ 20 ]. Violence has previously been studied as a contagious disease exhibiting spatiotemporal clustering and self-prorogation [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. We hypothesize that neighborhood safety and arboviruses are linked in Cali as high rates of violence may act as a barrier to services, including reliable water, mosquito spraying, public health, and epidemiological intervention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood Violence Impacts Disease Control and Surveillance: Case Study of Cali, Colombia from 2014 to 2016

Krystosik

Curtis

LaBeaud

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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Arboviruses are responsible for a large burden of disease globally and are thus subject to intense epidemiological scrutiny. However, a variable notably absent from most epidemiological analyses has been the impact of violence on arboviral transmission and surveillance. Violence impedes surveillance and delivery of health and preventative services and affects an individual’s health-related behaviors when survival takes priority. Moreover, low and middle-income countries bear a disproportionately high burden of violence and related health outcomes, including vector borne diseases. To better understand the epidemiology of arboviral outbreaks in Cali, Colombia, we georeferenced chikungunya (CHIKV), dengue (DENV), and Zika (ZIKV) viral cases from The National System of Surveillance in Public Health between October 2014 and April 2016. We extracted homicide data from the municipal monthly reports and kernel density of homicide distribution from IdeasPaz. Crucially, an overall higher risk of homicide is associated with increased risk of reported DENV, lower rates of acute testing, and higher rates of lab versus clinical discordance. In the context of high violence as a potential barrier to access to preventive health services, a community approach to improve health and peace should be considered.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neighborhood Violence Impacts Disease Control and Surveillance: Case Study of Cali, Colombia from 2014 to 2016

Krystosik

Curtis

LaBeaud

et al. 2018

IJERPH

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“…The proposed classification of violence as an epidemic has been controversial (Greene, 2018;Loeffler and Flaxman, 2018;Slutkin et al, 2018b;Williams and Donnelly, 2014). Although violence can be modeled like an epidemic (Green et al, 2017;Myers, 2000;Wiley et al, 2016), one study demonstrated that gun violence appears to only slowly diffuse over time (Loeffler and Flaxman, 2018).…”

Section: Can Information Be Pathogenic?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this paper is the first to clearly define the role information plays as causal agent in social epidemics by defining the term infopathogen. This definition can help resolve the scientific debate over the status of violence as a contagious disease (Greene, 2018;Slutkin et al, 2018b) by suggesting infopathogens as the missing causal agent (Greene, 2018). 2.…”

Section: Conclusion and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this article, we ask, can information be harmful, contagious and a causal factor in social epidemics? This is a critical question since there is an unresolved debate about whether social epidemics such as violence should be classified as epidemics (Greene, 2018;Loeffler and Flaxman, 2018;Slutkin et al, 2018b;Williams and Donnelly, 2014). One of the key arguments against their classification as epidemics is that there is no causal agent (Greene, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Information: a missing component in understanding and mitigating social epidemics

Magarey

Trexler

2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Social epidemics or behaviorally based non-communicable diseases are becoming an increasingly important problem in developed countries including the United States. It is the aim of our paper to propose a previously understudied aspect of the spread of social epidemics, the role of information in both causing and mitigating social epidemics. In this paper, we ask, can information be harmful, contagious, and a causal factor in social epidemics? In the spread of biological epidemics, the causal agents are biological pathogens such as bacteria or viruses. We propose that in the spread of social epidemics, one of the causal agents is harmful information, which is increasing exponentially in the age of the internet. We ground our idea in the concept of the meme and define the concept of an infopathogen as harmful information that can spread or intensify a social epidemic. Second, we ask, what are the best tools to understand the role of information in the spread of social epidemics? The epidemiological triad that includes a host, agents (and vectors), and the environment is extended into a quad by including information agents. The quad includes the role of information technologies as vectors and the impact of the social environment. The “life cycles” of pathogens in biological epidemics and infopathogens in social epidemics are compared, along with mitigations suggested by the epidemiological quad. Challenges to the theory of infopathogens, including the complexities associated with the spread of memes and the role of behavior in the spread of epidemics are discussed. Implications of the theory including the classification of harmfulness, the freedom of speech, and the treatment of infected individuals are also considered. We believe the application of the epidemiological quad provides insights into social epidemics and potential mitigations. Finally, we stress that infopathogens are only part of social epidemic development; susceptible hosts, a favorable environment, and availability of physical agents are all also required.

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“…Further stretching the comparison, some advocate that violence is literally a public health disease state, with their justification being that violence physically changes brain structures and functioning in a way that often results in more violence (Greene, 2018;Slutkin, 2013;Slutkin et al, 2018aSlutkin et al, , 2018bWilliams & Donnelly, 2014). Dr. Slutkin explains this point of view in the following letter to the editor:…”

Section: Conceptualizing Violence As a Literal Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of violence: Part contagious disease, part unpredictable individual: Is a public health assessment approach an additional option and at what cost?

Hall

Iannuzzi

2023

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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On a population level, violence shares many similarities with communicable disease states and other public health issues.Therefore, there has been a push to apply public health interventions to the problem of societal violence and for some to even identify violence as the product of a disease state (e.g., changed brain). This conceptualization could lead to the development of new risk violence assessment tools and approaches predicated more on the public health model rather than existing instruments that have often been based on inpatient mental health populations or incarcerated populations. In this article, we will discuss aspects of legal obligation for risk violence "prediction/stratification", the application of the public health communicable disease model to violence, as well as identify why it may not always translate to the individual with whom a clinician or forensic mental health evaluator interacts.

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Response to “Metaphorically or Not, Violence Is Not a Contagious Disease”

Cited by 6 publications

References 4 publications

Neighborhood Violence Impacts Disease Control and Surveillance: Case Study of Cali, Colombia from 2014 to 2016

Neighborhood Violence Impacts Disease Control and Surveillance: Case Study of Cali, Colombia from 2014 to 2016

Information: a missing component in understanding and mitigating social epidemics

Prediction of violence: Part contagious disease, part unpredictable individual: Is a public health assessment approach an additional option and at what cost?

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