Plague of Athens

In the Athenian plague is an epidemic that raged in the years BC 430-426 in Athens and on the course - along with the events of the Peloponnesian War - the Greek historian Thucydides kept meticulous records. It is therefore also referred to as an epidemic or " plague " of Thucydides, in English-speaking countries as The Plague of Athens, The epidemic of Athens or Thucydides Syndrome.

Limiting factor must be mentioned that the stands from the Latin term deriving pestis as well as the Greek loimós for a contagious disease that the knowledge of the pathogenesis of various infectious diseases was not available and epidemics were seen as " God's punishment ". About a quarter of the population of the besieged by the Spartans Athens fell to the Plague, including in the year 429 BC, Pericles. The effects are held responsible not only for the defeat of Athens, but also for the decline of the classical Greek culture as a whole.

Thucydides was about 31 years old at the outbreak of the disease and describes in detail the course of the second of eight books on the Peloponnesian War ( Chapters 47 to 55). He fell ill himself and noticed that no one had survived the disease, she was given a second time, which can be seen as the first written reference to immunological memory.

Symptoms

The disease occurred - Report of the According to Thucydides - suddenly in people who had previously been still in good health, and walked from the top to the bottom continues by beginning a strong ( internal ) heat sensation in the head with inflamed and reddened eyes came and throat and tongue anfühlten as raw. This was followed by sneezing, hoarseness and cough. The breath came here malodorous and irregular, the disease spread to the whole body over and when she had reached the stomach, it turned to this formally, so that was under terrible nausea vomiting bile in all that time under different forms. Finally, the disease gripped the genitals and limbs extending into the fingers and toes. Many had only escaped because they had lost them while others were blind turn or had lost her memory.

The body had not felt excessively hot, is only slightly reddened and covered with sores and ulcers have been. Internally, the sufferers would burn but felt a violent fire in him, so that some are driven by an insatiable thirst jumped, insomnia and restlessness in wells. In the more common case one is, without being completely exhausted, died after six or eight days, it was rare for a temporary recovery at a spread to the abdomen come with strong ulcer formation and occurrence of diarrhea, so that these patients died from the ensuing exhaustion.

A " hollow hiccup " was described as featuring in most patients, which were triggered violent convulsions, and in the one after symptoms have subsided, is yet occurred much later in the other.

Thucydides reports that one had died, because nobody had cared about them, while others died in spite of all possible care. Even animals were affected by the disease.

Hypotheses

The attempt to bring the situation described by Thucydides symptoms with a known disease today in context, has led more than 200 publications on the subject with at least 29 " suspected diagnoses " to date.

Include the following pathogens have so far been given as the cause:

• Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi fever as the cause of typhoid fever,
• Rickettsia prowazekii (see rickettsia ) as the cause of typhus
• Bacillus anthracis as a causative agent of anthrax
• Yersinia pestis as the causative agent of plague
• A toxic shock syndrome due to staphylococci as a complication of influenza
• The smallpox virus as the causative agent of smallpox
• Lassa virus as the causative agent of Lassa fever
• The Ebola virus as a causative agent of Ebola
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the cause of tuberculosis
• β -hemolytic streptococci as the causative agent of scarlet fever
• The measles virus as the causative agent of measles
• Marburg virus as the causative agent of Marburg fever
• Phleboviren as the causative agent of Rifttalfiebers
• Bunyaviruses as the causative agent of Crimean-Congo fever
• Arboviruses as the causative agent of Kyasanur forest fever
• Francisella - bacteria as the cause of tularemia
• Junin-/Machupoviren as the causative agent of Argentine / Bolivian haemorrhagic fever
• Hantaanviren ( cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome )
• Alphaviruses as cause of equine encephalitis ( may be accompanied by hemorrhage )

Must be as possibility being considered also that it was no longer an emerging epidemic today. Likewise, an identification is complicated by the fact that today is known diseases may well have undergone changes in their geographical distribution, symptoms, transmission as well as their virulence in the meantime. Also, a meeting or a superposition of two epidemics was discussed as a possible explanation. The previously expressed hypothesis, ergotism, a poisoning with ergot could be been ( next to another disease) mitbeteiligt in the epidemic, at least, has already rejected the late 19th century as extremely unlikely.

2005, a work of Papagrigorakis was published, which reported on the excavation of a mass grave with 150 bodies of 1994/95 in the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos in Athens. The dating of the tomb and the arrangement of the people buried here saying that it is likely to have acted here to alleged victims of the disease, so that the dental pulp of three teeth was examined by the polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) on DNA fragments. This was done is because dental pulp appeared to be a perfectly suitable test material because of their stability over the centuries, their (former) good vascular supply and its primary sterility. While the search for six potential other pathogens was inconclusive, genetic material could be detected with the similarity of a strain of Salmonella enterica serovar typhi. However, critical comments were not missing. Thus, in particular, complained that the fact alone that was found in the samples studied Salmonella DNA, by no means limited Todesursächlichkeit. Also, the possibility that it could be associated with this finding to contamination by soil bacteria is discussed. In addition, as described by Thucydides symptoms are to be brought only partially with this investigation result in harmony.