412 BC epidemic

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The 412 BC epidemic of an unknown disease, often identified as influenza, [1] [2] [3] was reported in Northern Greece by Hippocrates [4] and in Rome by Livy. [5]

Contents

Symptoms

Hippocrates named a wide variety of symptoms, among them: fever, coughing, pain in head and neck, and emaciation. The disease proved fatal most often among prepubescent children. [4]

Pandemic by Country

Greece

Hippocrates described an influenza like sickness in his "Book of Epidemics," which he states is called the "fever of Perinthus" or "cough of Perinthus". Hippocrates described a winter and spring epidemic of an upper respiratory tract infection happening annually Perinthus. There is scientific disagreement on whether the pandemic was influenza or diphtheria, with Émile Littré notably posing an opposition to the influenza diagnosis. [6]

Rome

The disease outbreak caused a food shortage in the Roman Republic, and a famine was only prevented with food relief from Sicily and Etruria, and via trade missions to the "peoples round about who dwelt on the Tuscan sea or by the Tiber." [7]

References

  1. ↑ Potter, C. W. (2002). "Foreword". Influenza. Elsevier Science. p. vii.
  2. ↑ Nelson, Kenrad E. (2001). Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory and Practice. Jones and Bartlett. p. 334.
  3. ↑ Hardman, Lizabeth (2011). Influenza Pandemics. Lucent Books. p. 8.
  4. 1 2 Hippocrates, Of the Epidemics, Book I
  5. ↑ Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 3-5
  6. ↑ Barberis, I.; Myles, P.; Ault, S. K.; Bragazzi, N. L.; Martini, M. "History and evolution of influenza control through vaccination: from the first monovalent vaccine to universal vaccines". Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. 57 (3): E115 –E120. ISSN   1121-2233. PMC   5139605 . PMID   27980374.
  7. ↑ Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 5-6


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