HLTB21H3 Lecture 2: Lecture 2 Notes.docx
Document Summary
During hunter-gatherer society predominant diseases were those with high transmission rates, macro parasitic diseases (did not require vectors for transmission), and sexually transmitted diseases. With move to agriculture - conditions favoured the emergence of epidemic diseases. Emergence of cities (technology) - urban life; uruk in mesopotamia (3500 bc) Characterised by parasites with long lived transmission stages (e. g. eggs, larva, ) Person to person contact from population growth. Evidence that it dates back to 1900 bc. Thought to first have appeared in the nile valley of egypt (overflooding the nile which helped people cultivate food) Emerge from agriculture, the inundation of the nile, eventually irrigation (seasonal) created favourable conditions that promoted the spread of the disease. Disease now known as snail fever or blood fluke disease / endemic hematuria / schistosomiasis: transmitted dermal from snails due to wet environment. European invasion of egypt (1799 1801) resulted in the first european experience with the disease.
