Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
Thucydides’ descriptions invite careful comparison with Viral Hemorrhagic Fever (e.g. Ebola/Marburg). Outbreaks of VHF in Africa in 2012 reinforced previous observations of increased hazard among caregivers and the necessity of barrier precautions in preventing disease spread related to funerary rites. Ancient Greek intimacy with African sources is reflected in accurate renditions of monkeys in art of frescoes and pottery (notably guenons, the type implicated in the inadvertent importation of Marburg virus disease to Germany and Yugoslavia when that disease was first characterized in 1967). Circumstantially tantalizing is the requirement for the large quantity of ivory used in the Athenian sculptor Phidias’ two monumental chryselephantine statues (one of which was one of the ‘Seven Wonders’), which were fabricated in the same period.
DNA sequence-based identification is limited by the inability of some important pathogens to leave a 'footprint' retrievable from archaeologic remains after several millennia. The lack of a durable signature by RNA viruses means some etiologies, notably the viral hemorrhagic fever viruses, are not testable hypotheses using currently available scientific techniques.
Read more about this topic: Plague Of Athens, Cause of The Plague
Famous quotes containing the word fever:
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