Scotland

Background To manage the public health risk posed by COVID-19 and assess the impact of interventions, policymakers must be able to closely monitor the epidemic’s trajectory.

Methods Here we present a simple methodology based on basic surveillance metrics for monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and its burden on health services in Scotland.

Results We examine how the dynamics of the epidemic have changed over time and assess the similarities and differences between metrics.

This paper examines the emergence of scurvy in several parts of Lowland Scotland during 1847. At first the condition was not recognised because of a mistaken, persistent belief that scurvy was only seen at sea, despite the work of James Lind who showed that sea and land scurvy were one and the same. Professor Christison failed initially to recognise the disease and wrongly thought it was caused by a lack of milk in the diet; colleagues elsewhere correctly attributed scurvy to the loss of the potato in the diet of the poor.

This study examines the distribution of laboratory-confirmed cases of Lyme borreliosis in Scotland and the clinical spectrum of presentations within NHS Highland.

Methods General demographic data (age/sex/referring Health Board) from all cases of Lyme borreliosis serologically confirmed by the National Lyme Borreliosis Testing Laboratory from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2013 were analysed. Clinical features of confirmed cases were ascertained from questionnaires sent to referring clinicians within NHS Highland during the study period.

The epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis (LB) in Tayside was studied and compared with Highland (an area of high endemicity) and the rest of Scotland. From April 2001 to March 2008 the incidence of LB in Tayside rose from an estimated 2.57 to 5.84 per 100,000 population. In 2008/09 the incidence of LB in Tayside increased further to an estimated 13.85 per 100,000 population.

Alcohol-related illness is a major problem in Scotland. Currently, its treatment in hospital is under-resourced, and patients are scattered around different departments. This review examines how Scotland’s health service can be adapted and redesigned to improve care for patients with alcohol-related illnesses and minimise the disruption they cause in hospitals.

Keywords Alcohol, liaison psychiatry, redesign, resources, Scotland

Declaration of Interests No conflict of interests declared.

The epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis (LB) in Tayside was studied and compared with Highland (an area of high endemicity) and the rest of Scotland. From April 2001 to March 2008 the incidence of LB in Tayside rose from an estimated 2.57 to 5.84 per 100,000 population. In 2008/09 the incidence of LB in Tayside increased further to an estimated 13.85 per 100,000 population.

This article covers public health aspects of the investigation and management of people who are infected with tuberculosis (TB). It contains a brief overview of the recent epidemiology of TB in Scotland, focusing on changes in Scottish TB incidence and describing some epidemiological associations. We then describe the initial public health assessment of those with suspected TB and responses that should be initiated. It does not address issues relating to the clinical treatment of patients with TB.

In December 1698 Sir John Clerk, second baronet of Penicuik, visited Cosimo III of Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, while on his Grand Tour of Europe – an essential part of the broader education of the gentleman at this time. The Duke presented him with a wooden medicine chest, in which the original medicines in their labelled containers are still to be found. The chest is Italian in origin, but many of the preparations it contains existed in various forms in European – including Scottish – formulations from that time.