Engleski A - 2022. ljeto, reading 2.

The history of infectious diseases

In terms of infectious diseases, a pandemic is the worst case scenario. When an epidemic spreads beyond a country’s borders, the disease officially becomes a pandemic. Although infectious diseases existed during humankind’s hunter-gatherer days, it was the shift to agrarian life, about 10,000 years ago, which created communities that made epidemics possible. Malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, smallpox and others first appeared during this period.

As we became more civilised, built more cities, forged trade routes to connect with other cities, and of course waged wars, the more likely pandemics became. The earliest recorded pandemic happened during the Peloponnesian War, in Athens in 430 BC. After the disease had passed through Libya, Ethiopia and Egypt, it crossed the Athenian walls just as the Spartans were laying siege to the city. As much as two-thirds of the population died. The symptoms included fever, thirst, sore throat and tongue, red skin and lesions. The disease, suspected to have been typhoid fever, weakened the Athenians significantly and was a crucial factor in their defeat by the Spartans.

The Antonine plague, which started in 165 AD, was possibly an early appearance of smallpox. It broke out among the Huns, who then infected the Germans, who passed it on to the Romans. And then returning Roman troops spread it throughout the Roman Empire. Symptoms included fever, sore throat, diarrhea and, if the patient lived long enough, skin sores. This plague continued until about 180 AD, claiming Emperor Marcus Aurelius as one of its victims.

Leprosy, though it had been around for ages, grew into a proper pandemic in Europe in the Middle Ages, resulting in the building of numerous leprosy-focused hospitals to accommodate the vast number of victims. A slow-developing bacterial disease that causes sores and deformities, leprosy was believed to be a punishment from God that ran in families. This belief led to moral judgments and the stigmatization of its victims. Today called Hansen’s disease, leprosy still afflicts tens of thousands of people a year, and can be fatal if not treated with antibiotics.

The Black Death entered Europe through Sicily in 1347 AD, when people with the plague arrived in the port of Messina from the Far East, and spread the disease throughout Europe rapidly. Dead bodies became so prevalent that many were not buried, creating a constant stench in European cities. England and France were so incapacitated by the plague that the countries called a truce to their Hundred Years War. The British feudal system collapsed as a result of the plague dramatically changing economic circumstances and demographics. It went on to decimate populations in Greenland, and the Vikings lost the manpower to wage battle against native populations, and their exploration of North America came to a halt.

Following the arrival of the Spanish in the Caribbean in 1492, diseases such as smallpox, measles and bubonic plague were passed along to the native populations by the Europeans. With no previous exposure, these diseases devastated indigenous people, with as many as 90 percent dying throughout the north and south continents. Upon arrival on the island of Hispaniola, Christopher Columbus encountered the Taino people, population 60,000. By 1548, the population stood at less than 500. This scenario repeated itself throughout the Americas. In 1520, the Aztec Empire was destroyed by a smallpox infection. The disease killed many of its victims and incapacitated others. It weakened the population so they were unable to resist the Spanish colonizers and left farmers unable to produce needed crops.