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Italian medical history in the age of positivism showed a strong interest in epidemics. This can be seen in Alfonso Corradi's monumental Annali (1865-1895) and in works of other 19th-century historians who addressed major public health issues in the newly unified country. Local history was also widely practiced in Italy, and it was instrumental in discovering and publishing a wealth of documentation on past epidemic and endemic diseases, as well as on measures such as quarantines that were invented or introduced in the peninsula as early as the late Middle Ages. The way Italian historians looked at epidemics in the 20th century was shaped by politics, religion and literature more than by demography, epidemiology, or technical knowledge in the medical field. This article and its accompanying bibliography will focus on regional historiography and deal with the history of plague, smallpox, cholera and malaria, and other diseases addressed in works published after the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemic curves are used by decision makers and the public to infer the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand the appropriateness of response measures. Symptom onset date is commonly used to date incident cases on the epidemic curve in public health reports and dashboards; however, third-party trackers date cases by the date they were publicly reported by the public health authority. These two curves create very different impressions of epidemic progression. On April 1, 2020, the epidemic curve based on public reporting date for Ontario, Canada showed an accelerating epidemic, whereas the curve based on a proxy variable for symptom onset date showed a rapidly declining epidemic. This illusory downward trend is a feature of epidemic curves anchored using date variables earlier in time than the date a case was publicly reported, such as the symptom onset date. Delays between the onset of symptoms and the detection of a case by the public health authority mean that recent days will always have incomplete case data, creating a downward bias. Public reporting date is not subject to this bias and can be used to visualize real-time epidemic curves meant to inform the public and decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We describe the epidemiological trends and report and review the public health restrictions implemented during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. Methods The study reviewed confirmed cases of COVID-19 notified from 1 March to 18 July 2020. Data were obtained from the national COVID-19 Data Hub, the National Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the National Contact Management Programme and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Results A total of 25 617 cases were notified during the study period. Weekly cases and deaths peaked in mid-April 2020 at 5701 and 316, respectively. Mean number of close contacts per case was lowest at 0.7 in April, rising to 6.6 by July. Outbreak settings shifted from travel and workplace in March, to healthcare in April. Restrictions implemented on 12 March extended to full lockdown on 27 March. Phased relaxation of restrictions commenced 18 May. Effective suppression of community transmission of COVID-19 was achieved by June 2020. Conclusion Lockdown is a crude population-level restriction effective in controlling COVID-19. Phased relaxation of restrictions in Ireland, however, led to an immediate increase in mean number of contacts per case, which facilitates viral transmission unless individual-level restrictions are adhered to. This demonstrates a limitation of lockdown as a long-term mechanism of pandemic control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]