HLTB21H3 Chapter 3&4: Plague Readings Chapter 3&4
Document Summary
In small groups (no exposure to infections and minimal survival and transmission of parasites) epidemic diseases were virtually nonexistent: disease of antiquity, are parasites with long-lived transmission stages involving person-to-person contact. Hematuria is a disease that causes blood to appear in the urine: blood fluke was the causative agent of the pharaoh"s plague. Recall the story of the snail infested water of jericho: blood fluke disease caused snail fever. (not a fatal disease). I r rigations farming made conditions favorable for the transmission of these parasites: blood fluke involves feces or urine, water, snails and a flatworm, theodor bilharz a german physician discovered worms in the blood vessels. He named the worms distomum (two mouths) haematobium (blood and to live in), and then changed to schistosoma meaning split and body, in 1858. I t is also called bilharzia: there are three species of human infecting blood flukes. (recall on pg. It reproduces asexually for 6 to 7 weeks.
