Epidemics

By Geoffrey Marks

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684145685
• ISBN13: 9780684145686
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Enemies of the People

Epidemic diseases provided some of the great disasters in the history of mankind. This book provides a general history of the communicable diseases that affect many persons at one time. Several diseases, like tuberculosis, were omitted. The authors cover the written record from before 1500BC to the 1970s. It is hard to identify the diseases from more than 600 years ago. An endemic disease is one that is part of everyday life in a region. An epidemic disease is one that quickly affects a large number of people. The book does not cover social diseases like pellagra, or industrial diseases.The Plagues of Pharaoh are the best know plagues of ancient times. The authors say they were a series of natural catastrophes from drought (p.4). Dried rivers, dust storms, diseased cattle and men, then a crop failure followed by locusts. The strict adherence to dietary laws saved the Israelites. Other pages tell of diseases from eating fish from rivers used to dispose of plague victims; pigs and dogs are known to be carrion eaters. Quail fallen from the skies suggests they died of a disease. Burning aromatic herbs may protect against plague (p.6) like citronella candles against mosquitoes. Ticks and fleas have long passed on typhus, bubonic plague, Lyme disease, etc. Rats and mice too. Invading armies are also transmitters of disease.The severe plague that hit Rome in 452BC affected society (as in medieval times): people disregarded the norms of their society. Could this happen today after a disaster? The only comparable even was the gasoline shortages of the 1970s, but people weren't dying from that.Given the current level of medical knowledge the plagues of the past should not reoccur. But what if the Power Elite decides to stop vaccinating against a disease like smallpox? Would an epidemic be an accident or the result of this calculation? Readers of "Rule by Secrecy" by Jim Marrs might nor view this as an accident.The Roman plague of the 5th century BC was followed by a reform of the laws (pp.16-7). This also happened after the Black Death in England (14th century). What would happen after a Nuclear Winter? Pages 194-5 tell of the political unrest that followed the cholera epidemics. Another effect was to create Boards of Health and public water and sewage systems in the cities. Cholera was possible because of the rapid transportation from steam power. Previously people would die before they could infect others. This book will teach you many facts that are censored from the usual academic histories. The outbreak of cholera in 1833 Mexico was followed by the revolts in Zacatecas and Texas.Oliver Wendell Homes wrote about the contagiousness of puerperal fever in 1843, and the need for cleanliness. A. Conan Doyle held him in such esteem he gave the last name to his fictional detective. It is educational to read of the controversy on puerperal fever (Chapter 13).