Keywords
epidemics
history of medicine
immunology
plague
prevention
infectious diseases
Abstract
The present article reviews the major historical plague epidemics that characterised human history by combining data derived from historical sources and biomedical evidence emerged in recent years thanks to advancements of palaeogenetics and palaeopathology. Notes are offered on the Plague of Athens, the Antonine Plague, the Plague of Cyprian, the Justinian Plague, the Black Death down to more recent centuries and presenting key aspects that continued to be preserved over time and would also partly characterise the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
References
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#google_vignette (accessed on 8 August 2024).
Galassi FM, Pate FD, You W, Gurr A, Lucas T, Antunes-Ferreira N, Varotto E, Habicht ME. Pandemic realism as the indispensable political precondition for global disease eradication, Public Health 2022;212:55-7. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2022.08.016.
Galassi FM, Varotto E. Sinophobia as the disease and palaeopathology as the cure: response to Adja et al. Public Health 2020;187:189-90. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.06.058.
Orsini D, Bianucci R, Galassi FM, Lippi D, Martini M. Vaccine hesitancy, misinformation in the era of Covid-19: Lessons from the past. Ethics Med Public Health 2022;24:100812. doi: 10.1016/j.jemep.2022.100812.
Raoult D, Mouffok N, Bitam I, Piarroux R, Drancourt M. Plague: history and contemporary analysis. J Infect. 2013 Jan;66(1):18-26. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2012.09.010.
Wang W, Li X, Wu J, Fu X, Li B. Imaging analysis of pneumonic plague infection in Xizang, China: a case report and literature review, BMC Pulm Med 2024; 24:378. doi: 10.1186/s12890-024-03187-3.
Butler T. Plague into the 21st century. Clin Infect Dis 2009;49: 736e42. [doi: 10.1086/604718].
Wong D, Wild MA, Walburger MA, Higgins CL, Callahan M, Czarnecki LA, et al. Primary pneumonic plague contracted from a mountain lion carcass. Clin Infect Dis 2009;49:e33e8. [doi: 10.1086/600818]
Wong JD, Barash JR, Sandfort RF, Janda JM. Susceptibilities of Yersinia pestis strains to 12 antimicrobial agents. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2000;44:1995e6.
Online Etymology Dictionary, sub voce ‘plague’, online at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/plague (website consulted on 8 August 2024).
Stock F. Il lessico del contagio. In: Radici Colace P, Zumbo A, editors. Letteratura scientifica e tecnica greca. Atti del Seminario internazionale di studi. Messina: EDAS; 2000, pp. 55-59.
Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd; 1924. Online at: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D33 (website consulted on 8 August 2024).
Tucidide. La guerra del Peloponneso. Canfora L, editor. Torino: Einaudi-Gallimard;1996.
Simonetti O, Cosimi L, Cigana M, Penco A, Di Bella S, Martini M. Balto and Togo during the cold winter of Alaska (1925): the two canine heroes in the fight against diphtheria. J Prev Med Hyg. 2024 Mar 31;65(1):E98-E104. doi: 10.15167/2421-4248/jpmh2024.65.1.3229.
Orsini D, Martini M. From inoculation to vaccination: the fight against smallpox in Siena in the 18th and 19th centuries. Infez Med 2020;28:634-41.
Olson PE, Hames CS, Benenson AS, Genovese EN. The Thucydides syndrome : Ebola déjà vu? (or Ebola reemergent?). Emerg Infect Dis 1996;2:155-56. doi: 10.3201/eid0202.960220.
McNeill WC. Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Books Doubleda; 1976.
Haas C. The Antonine plague. Bull Acad Natl Med. 2006;190(4-5):1093-8. PMID: 17195627.
Harper K. Pandemics and passages to late antiquity: rethinking the plague of c. 249-270 described by Cyprian. JRA 2015;28:223-60.
Sabbatani S, Manfredi R, Fiorino S. La peste di Giustiniano (prima parte) [The Justinian plague (part one)]. Infez Med 2012;20:125-39.
Naphy W, Spicer A. La peste in Europa. Bologna: Il Mulino; 2006.
Wagner DM, Klunk J, Harbeck M, Devault A, Waglechner N, Sahl JW, Enk J, Birdsell DN, Kuch M, Lumibao C, Poinar D, Pearson T, Fourment M, Golding B, Riehm JM, Earn DJ, Dewitte S, Rouillard JM, Grupe G, Wiechmann I, Bliska JB, Keim PS, Scholz HC, Holmes EC, Poinar H. Yersinia pestis and the plague of Justinian 541-543 AD: a genomic analysis. Lancet Infect Dis 2014;14:319-26. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70323-2.
Nanni P. Per un quadro ambientale e biologico: il periodo caldo medievale e la variabilità climatica. In: Franceschi F, editor. La crescita economica dell’Occidente medievale. Un tema storico non ancora esaurito. Atti del XXV Convegno Internazionale di studi. Roma: Viella; 2017. pp. 69-91.
Guénin G, Novillac J. Lectures Historiques. Paris: Hachette; 1926.
Pizon P. Charles de Lorme - médecin des bains de Bourbon – L’Archambault (1584-1678). Presse Med 1953; 61:1786-8.
Mattie, H. J. (2023). Men in Tights: Charles De Lorme (1584–1678) and the First Plague Costume. European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health, 81(1):1-13. doi: 10.1163/26667711-bja10033
Lippi D, Varotto E, Boccalini S, Bechini A, Donell ST, Galassi FM. Face Masks to Prevent Infectious Diseases: An Historico-Anthropological Perspective in the Light of the Recent Pandemic. Anthropologie (Brno) 2023;61:211-15. doi: 10.26720/anthro.23.06.12.2.
Merlin M. Vaccination antipesteuse : le passé et les perspectives d’avenir. Bul Soc Pathol Exot 1999;92:427-31.
Rosenzweig JA, Chopra AK. The future of plague vaccines: hopes raised by a surrogate, live-attenuated recombinant vaccine candidate. Expert Rev Vaccines 2012;11:659-61. doi: 10.1586/erv.12.34.
Klunk J, Vilgalys TP, Demeure CE, Cheng X, Shiratori M, Madej J, Beau R, Elli D, Patino MI, Redfern R, DeWitte SN, Gamble JA, Boldsen JL, Carmichael A, Varlik N, Eaton K, Grenier JC, Golding GB, Devault A, Rouillard JM, Yotova V, Sindeaux R, Ye CJ, Bikaran M, Dumaine A, Brinkworth JF, Missiakas D, Rouleau GA, Steinrücken M, Pizarro-Cerdá J, Poinar HN, Barreiro LB. Evolution of immune genes is associated with the Black Death. Nature 2022;611:312-19. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05349-x.