Ooooh, I'm almost caught up.
Posted on 01/11/2023 6:51:56 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Researchers now believe the disease dates back 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.
While the origins of smallpox has remained a mystery for centuries, researchers now believe that it dates back 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Until recently, the earliest genetic evidence of smallpox, the variola virus, was from the 1600s. And in 2020, researchers found evidence of it in the dental remains of Viking skeletons, pushing its existence 1,000 years earlier.
Now, Italian scientists have used a mathematical equation to pinpoint the beginnings of smallpox, and coupled with pox scarring seen on ancient Egyptian mummies, they have pushed the emergence of the virus back 3,800 years...
In the new study, the researchers found that different strains of smallpox all descended from a single common ancestor. A small fraction of the genetic components found in Viking-age genomes even persisted until the 18th century.
To estimate the origin of the virus, the researchers then accounted for something called the "time-dependent rate phenomenon."
...By using a mathematical equation to account for the time-dependent rate phenomenon, the research team estimated the first emergence of smallpox may harken back to Egyptian times: Ancient mummies, including the Pharaoh Ramses V, who died in 1157 BC, had suspicious scarring.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
😆
I think I just read that the cowpox spread through camels. I’m dead set against cows and camels dating.
Poxman, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo, Poxman...
Midnight at the oasis, send your camel to bed ...
Generally speaking, I think camels would be more likely to get dates than cows.
from the article
” Italian scientists have used a mathematical equation to pinpoint the beginnings of smallpox”
” Dr. Diego Forni, from the Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, in Italy.”
https://emedea.it/english_medea/research.html
it looks like https://emedea.it/english_medea/who_we_are/index.php it is funded by the Italian state and is primarily for rehabilitation.
As to your question, yes it does matter when - the more we know, the more we can prevent a potential recurrence. Also it is interesting from a historical point of view
Ooooh, I'm almost caught up.
Written documentation from medical scholar Antonis Faucius declared that the smallpox virus would be treated by a process he called “variolation”, whereby the pustules would be scratched into the arms of the people who never had it.
“It’s the only approved way! Absolutely safe! After all, I am science!”
2006 Apr-May;190(4-5):1093-8.
[The Antonine plague]
[Article in French]
Charles Haas
PMID: 17195627
Abstract: During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Empire was struck by a long and destructive epidemic. It began in Mesopotamia in late AD 165 or early AD 166 during Verus’ Parthian campaign, and quickly spread to Rome. It lasted at least until the death of Marcus Aurelius in AD 180 and likely into the early part of Commodus’ reign. Its victims were “innumerable”. Galen had first-hand knowledge of the disease. He was in Rome when the plague reached the city in AD 166. He was also present during an outbreak among troops stationed at Aquileia during the winter of AD 168-169. His references to the plague are scattered and brief but enough information is available to firmly identify the plague as smallpox. His description of the exanthema is fairly typical of the smallpox rash, particularly in the hemorrhagic phase of the disease.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17195627/
Infez Med. 2009 Dec;17(4):261-75.
The Antonine Plague and the decline of the Roman Empire
[Article in Italian]
S Sabbatani 1, S Fiorino
Affiliations expand
PMID: 20046111
Free article
Abstract: The Antonine Plague, which flared up during the reign of Marcus Aurelius from 165 AD and continued under the rule of his son Commodus, played such a major role that the pathocenosis in the Ancient World was changed. The spread of the epidemic was favoured by the occurrence of two military episodes in which Marcus Aurelius himself took part: the Parthian War in Mesopotamia and the wars against the Marcomanni in northeastern Italy, in Noricum and in Pannonia. Accounts of the clinical features of the epidemic are scant and disjointed, with the main source being Galen, who witnessed the plague. Unfortunately, the great physician provides us with only a brief presentation of the disease, his aim being to supply therapeutic approaches, thus passing over the accurate description of the disease symptoms. Although the reports of some clinical cases treated by Galen lead us to think that the Antonine plague was caused by smallpox, palaeopathological confirmation is lacking. Some archaeological evidence (such as terracotta finds) from Italy might reinforce this opinion. In these finds, some details can be observed, suggesting the artist’s purpose to represent the classic smallpox pustules, typical signs of the disease. The extent of the epidemic has been extensively debated: the majority of authors agree that the impact of the plague was severe, influencing military conscription, the agricultural and urban economy, and depleting the coffers of the State. The Antonine plague affected ancient Roman traditions, also leaving a mark on artistic expression; a renewal of spirituality and religiousness was recorded. These events created the conditions for the spread of monotheistic religions, such as Mithraism and Christianity. This period, characterized by health, social and economic crises, paved the way for the entry into the Empire of neighbouring barbarian tribes and the recruitment of barbarian troops into the Roman army; these events particularly favoured the cultural and political growth of these populations. The Antonine Plague may well have created the conditions for the decline of the Roman Empire and, afterwards, for its fall in the West in the fifth century AD.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20046111/
Galen, aDNA and the Plague
Rebecca Flemming
https://classicalstudies.org/galen-adna-and-plague
McGill University
Office for Science and Society
Measles: the plague that ruined Rome
Ada McVean B.Sc. | 27 Jun 2018
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but from 165-180 CE, up to 2,000 of its citizens were killed per day.
The Antonine Plague, also known as the Plague of Galen (after the doctor who described it), decimated the Roman Empire. It was brought to Rome by armies returning from western Asia, causing fevers, skin sores, diarrhea and sore throats.
This plague, and the Plague of Cyprian that occurred about 70 years later, are generally thought to be due to smallpox and measles. The Roman citizens at this time would not had been exposed to either virus and thus would have had no immunity, which could explain the mass casualties seen (the first plague had a mortality rate of 25%).
While smallpox has not been seen clinically since 1977, measles still kills upwards of 85,000 people every year, despite being vaccine preventable. While the measles virus is most famous for causing the red rash that begins at the hairline and slowly spreads over the entire body, it can also cause fevers, sore throats, nausea and diarrhea. Perhaps just as distinctive, if not as noticeable, are the tiny white Koplik spots that may appear inside a victim’s mouth. The good news is that the rash actually signals the end of the viral infection, and the skin usually flakes off as the rash goes away.
Most of our readers are safe from the Romans’ fate, as measles was officially eliminated from the Americas in 2016. However, this elimination is conditional on travellers not bringing the virus back from their vacations and causing an outbreak. That’s why the MMR vaccine, which provides immunity against measles, mumps, and rubella, is recommended for all, travellers and home bodies alike.
In 2014 a group of unvaccinated Amish missionaries brought measles back from the Philippines. It rapidly spread through their largely unvaccinated communities, resulting in 383 cases of measles across 9 countries. Luckily, thanks to modern medicine, no one died. We’ve come a long way from the plague that wiped out one third of the Roman Empire, and thanks to vaccines, we’ve got no plans for a measles plague of our own.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-history/measles-plague-ruined-rome
Plague of Cyprian
The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic that afflicted the Roman Empire from about AD 249 to 262.[1][2] The plague is thought to have caused widespread manpower shortages for food production and the Roman army, severely weakening the empire during the Crisis of the Third Century.[2][3][4] Its modern name commemorates St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, an early Christian writer who witnessed and described the plague.[2] The agent of the plague is highly speculative because of sparse sourcing, but suspects have included smallpox, measles, and viral haemorrhagic fever (filoviruses) like the Ebola virus.[1][2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_of_Cyprian
Nice addition!
[snip] Raoul McLaughlin wrote that the Roman subjects visiting the Han Chinese court in 166 could have ushered in a new era of Roman Far East trade, but it was a “harbinger of something much more ominous” instead.[41] McLaughlin surmised that the origins of the plague lay in Central Asia, from some unknown and isolated population group, which then spread to the Chinese and the Roman worlds.[41] The plague caused “irreparable” damage to the Roman maritime trade in the Indian Ocean as proven by the archaeological record spanning from Egypt to India as well as significantly decreased Roman commercial activity in Southeast Asia.[42] However, as evidenced by the 3rd-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the 6th-century Christian Topography by Cosmas Indicopleustes, Roman maritime trade into the Indian Ocean, particularly in the silk and spice trades, certainly did not cease but continued until the loss of Egypt to the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate.[43][44] [/snip]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Plague#Indian_Ocean_trade_and_Han_China
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