HISTORY OF DISEASES


Throughout history, parasites we destroyed have returned to plague us. In 430 BC, in Athens there were 200,000 inhabitants. War broke out with Sparta. Over 1/2 of the Athenians died of some mysterious disease that resulted in the collapse of Athens. (Cause was possibly influenza and staph with toxic shock.) In 130 BC, troops from Syria brought smallpox home and 1/2 of the population of 2 million people died. Over the next 14 years, 7 million Europeans died. In 550 AD, the bubonic plague hit Europe killing 1/2 of the population. Bacteria had a field day. 30% of the Romans lived past 30 years. In the country, 70% of the people lived past 30. In 1351 AD, Bubonic plague came and 30 million Europeans died. The cause was a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, found in the gut of fleas that lived off the blood of rodents. The rodents died and the fleas attached to humans. The lymphatics of man were entered resulting in hemorrhage and dementia. Black and purple spots were noted on the skin. London’s population of 60,000 was reduced to 35,000. Within 2 years 2/3 of China was destroyed with drought and famine following the plague. In 1519 Cortez brought small pox to Mexico. Within 50 years the population dropped from 25 million to 3 million. (The Spanish were immune to the disease at that time.) Traders from the Mediterranean, looking for silk, spread malaria to China. Schistosomiasis killed in the southern Yangtze, and smallpox killed in the North. In the sixteenth century white man’s diseases appeared. 1520 smallpox, 1530 typhus, 1558 influenza and 100 mumps. In the New America, measles, small pox and mumps killed over 90 million Indians leaving only 10 million survivors. In the late 1880 syphilis appeared on the scene with two spirochetes, the Yans in Africa and the Bejel in the Middle East . Transmutation occurred and a new spirochete Treponema came on the scene. In 1918, influenza killed 20 million people. Its effect was overshadowed by World War I. By the year 2000 it is estimated that 40-100 million people will be infected. Already 20 million adults and 1 million children have been killed by the virus. By 2010 it is estimated that 1/2 of Africans south of the Sahara will die of Aids. In 1989, in Reston Virginia, Ebola fever was found in two Filipinos who caught it from monkeys. After intense treatment, they were saved. This illustrates with our global travel how quickly disease can spread through out the world. In 1994, Cholera was found in refuge camp of Tanzania during its battle with Zaire. While the Huts and Tutsi fought, neighborhood Rwanda was dying.