HLTB21H3 Lecture : PLAGUES AND PEOPLE LEC 2 - CHAPTER 3 & 4 - Plagues of Antiquity Bubonic Plague (Black Death).docx
Document Summary
Chapter 3 six plagues of antiquity (5000 bc to 700 ad) 2 million years ago, human populations were not exposed to infection because of small-group hunter gatherers. Only diseases with very high transmission rates that induced little to none immunity, & macro parasitic diseases not involving vectors for transmission and std"s were able to establish themselves in groups of hunter-gatherers. Malaria and yellow fever came more existent after human populations settled down. Agriculture provided increased amounts of food for the people, but it also contributed to the conditions that would result in a decline in human health. Urban life enhanced the transmission of certain diseases through the air and water, by direct contact, and by vectors such as snails, mosquitoes, and flies. The diseases of antiquity (5000 bc to ad 700) were characterized by parasites with long-lived transmission stages (ex: eggs) as well as those involving person-to-person contact. The pharoahs" plague (snail fever/blood fluke/ endemic hematuria)
