China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
The Roman Empire
Published in Scott M. Jackson, Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
Titus Lucretius Carus, called Lucretius (99–55 BCE), was a Roman poet and philosopher who wrote the “the most beautiful scientific work of classic Latinism,” the De rerum natura, “On the nature of things.”106 Within the lines of this extraordinary six-volume poem can be found many innovative statements about anatomy, physiology, and disease. The last book contains a famous account of the Plague of Athens (430–426 BCE). This poem is a must-read for any student of the history of science, the history of medicine, or philosophy.
Inflammatory, Hypersensitivity and Immune Lung Diseases, including Parasitic Diseases.
Published in Fred W Wright, Radiology of the Chest and Related Conditions, 2022
Well known ancient epidemics include the plague of Athens in 430 BC (so vividly described by Thucydides). The first European pandemic started in AD 541 and the second, which killed over 50M people, lasted from 1347 to 1771, including the Black Death (1347 - 1351) and the Great Plague of London 1665, which is still referred to in the nursery rhyme 'Ring a ring a roses, a pocket full of poses, atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down' (i.e. ring of red spots, a bag of sweet-scented flowers - to try to ward off the infection - sneeze and die!). People could be well at breakfast time and be dead by evening - 50% of London's population died. If people had not become infected within 40 days they were safe from it - hence 'quarantine'.
A brief history of pandemics
Published in Edward M. Rafalski, Ross M. Mullner, Healthcare Analytics, 2022
The Peloponnesian War, a 27-year-long conflict between the ancient Greek civilizations of Athens and Sparta, broke out in 431 BCE. The 4-year-long Plague of Athens erupted in 430 BCE and was estimated by the Athenian general Thucydides to have killed one-quarter of the population occupying Athens during the war, including the city-state’s leader, Pericles. The death of Pericles and loss of the war is generally considered by historians to mark the end of the “Golden Age” of Ancient Greece [2]. Thucydides suffered from the plague himself and wrote down careful observations in his History of the Peloponnesian War that have been used by modern scholars in attempts to ascribe a pathogen to the plague, paleobiological remains being absent. Thucydides described the disease as having a sudden onset, accompanied by a high fever, sore throat, and a red rash that descended from the head down the body. Later disease signs including cough, vomiting, copious diarrhea, small blisters and sores, and sleeplessness followed, before recovery or death around day eight or nine of the illness.
Prior pandemics. looking to the past for insight into the COVID-19 pandemic
Published in Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives, 2021
One of the earliest and most mysterious pandemics for which we have information, was one that occurred in the 5th century B.C.E., and became known as the ‘Plague of Athens.’ The painting by Michiel Sweerts shown in Figure 1 gives artistic expression to the devastating effects of the disorder on the people of Athens. The pandemic erupted during the early months of the Peloponnesian War, a war that pitted Sparta against Athens in a struggle for leadership of the league of Greek city states joined together as a defense against Persian aggression. The war began in the summer of 431 B.C.E., when Sparta marched north and besieged Athens. Almost immediately a strange illness began raging among the Athenians huddled for safety within their walled city, killing an estimated quarter of the population, contributing to both their eventual capitulation and the end of their golden age. The cause of the epidemic has never been determined. However, according to Thucydides, who described the disorder for posterity, victims of the plague exhibited a blistering rash, which if true, makes smallpox a likely cause of the pandemic. A careful review of the limited information available on the pandemic suggests that like several later pandemics, the infection responsible for the Plague of Athens arose in Africa before sweeping throughout what was then the known world [1]. Fortunately for mankind, smallpox was eliminated from the list of human diseases as of 1977, thanks to the use of a highly effective vaccine in a global eradication program.
Protecting Children with Long-Term Conditions during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Published in Comprehensive Child and Adolescent Nursing, 2020
The earliest recorded pandemic happened during the Peloponnesian War in 430 BC and has been called the plague of Athens. It killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, as much as two-thirds of the population. Since then, pandemics of even greater magnitude have continued to haunt mankind. The Antonine plague of 165–180AD (named after the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus), now attributed to an early emergence of smallpox, killed about 5 million including the emperor himself. In context viral smallpox has been a big killer of man over the centuries with an attributed 56 million deaths including an estimated 90% of Native Americans. When Europeans arrived in the new world the indigenous population was exposed to new infectious diseases such as smallpox, diseases for which they lacked any immunity (Patterson & Runge, 2002). Thus, far, however, the biggest biological killer in history has been the Black Death, which caused mortality of up to 200 million with 30–50% of the population of Europe being decimated. It took 200 years for the population to recover. Interestingly, although the Black Death was attributed to the Yersinia pestis bacteria scholars now believe that it might have actually been caused by a hemorrhagic virus perhaps similar to Ebola (Duncan & Scott, 2005).
The internet era for pandemics
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2021
The first epidemic for which historical reports exist is the ‘Plague of Athens,’ which burst into the city in 430 BC. The still unidentified pathogen responsible for this killer epidemic may have been a bacterium (e.g. typhus, typhoid, plague) or a virus (e.g. smallpox), but no symptomatology of diseases known to us today covers what is described in detail by the Athenian historian, Thucydides [1,2]. The epidemic killed about one fourth of the population (75–100 thousand), crucially contributing to the later defeat of Athens in the years-long Peloponnesian war against Sparta and its allies.