History of Hepatitis

Originally described by Hippocrates in the second century BC, hepatitis has an ancient historical perspective.

In the early years of this century it was labeled acute catarrhal jaundice and was not regarded as an infectious disease. The earliest description of outbreaks of hepatitis in the ancient world most likely involved hepatitis A virus.

Jaundice was generally considered obstructive in origin, although large epidemics associated with military campaigns were describe as early as the 17th century and continued through World War II.

The earliest recorded outbreak in the United States occurred in Norfolk, Virginia in 1812.

In 1928 W.N Pickles a country practitioner in Yorkshire showed that the incubation period was approximately one month and transmission was by some form of person to person transfer.

From 1940s through the 1950s, extensive efforts to identify the agents associated with viral hepatitis were unsuccessful.

The era of definitive etiologic discovery in hepatitis was initiated in the mid 1960s, with the discovery by Baruch Blumberg and coworkers and Prince of the hepatitis B surface antigen that circulates in the bloods carriers of the infection.

This was followed by the discovery of hepatitis A virus by F Deinhardt.

Advances in molecular techniques in the late 1980s, especially the polymerase chain reaction, have ushered in the discovery of two new virus, hepatitis C and hepatitis E.
History of Hepatitis

Measles – History of discovery

Measles – History of discovery

Measles is a relatively new disease of humans and probably evolved from an animal morbilivirus.

Measles or rubeola is a highly communicable viral disease that is characterized by a reddish brown rash that lasts for five to six days. Although a rare side effect, post-infection encephalitis can lead to permanent brain damage. Almost every susceptible child exposed to another child in the early stages of measles will contract the disease.

The first scientific description of measles and its distinction from smallpox and chickenpox is credited to the Persian physician, Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (860-932), known to the West as "Rhazes", who published a book entitled The Book of Smallpox and Measles (in Arabic: Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah).

Rhazes referred to measles as ‘hasbah’ (eruption) and regarded it as a modification of smallpox. One distinction noted was that ‘anxiety of mind, sick qualms and heaviness of heart oppress more in the measles than in the smallpox. Repeated epidemics of illness characterized by a rash are recorded in European and Far Eastern populations between AD 1 and 1200.

In roughly the last 150 years, measles has been estimated to have killed about 200 million people worldwide. In 1954, the virus causing the disease was isolated from an 11-year old boy from the United States, and adapted and propagated on chick embryo tissue culture. To date, 21 strains of the measles virus have been identified. Licensed vaccines to prevent the disease became available in 1963.

Many of the basic principles of measles epidemiology and infection were elucidated by the studies of Peter Panum, a Danish physician who went to the France Islands in 1846 during a large scale measles epidemic. Panum deduced the highly contagious nature of the disease the 14-day incubation period, the lifelong immunity present in older residents, and postulated a respiratory route of transmission.
Measles – History of discovery

History of Filariasis

History of Filariasis
Filariasis is a helminthic infection found principally in tropical and subtropical areas in Africa, and in the South Pacific regions. The disease is transmitted from man through several genera and species of mosquitoes. The acute disease is manifested by recurrent chills and fever and by visible swelling or nodules of the lymphatics and redness of the overlaying skin due to parasitic involvement.

The illness usually subsides gradually with or without therapy. But in those who have been repeatedly infected and are chronically ill, the inflammatory reaction and scarring of the tissues surrounding the vessels may impede the flow of lymph and blood, and mammoth enlargement (“elephantiasis”) of the arms, legs, scrotum and breasts can occur. During World War II approximately fifteen thousand American military personnel became infected, but prompted withdrawal of these patients from the endemic zones prevented chronic disease and elephantiasis.

Filariasis was the first human disease described in which transmission through the skin was cause by the bites of arthropods. Doctor O. Wucherer (1868) found the embryonic filarial worms in the urine of a patient in Bahia, Brazil. T. R. Lewis (1872), working in India, observed the embryos in the urine and also in the blood, and Joseph Bancroft (1878) in Brisbane, Australia first described the adult worm. The parasite has been designated Wuchereria bancrofti.

The momentous discovery of the role of the mosquito in transmitting the disease was made by the Scotsman Patrick Mansion (1877) while he was practicing medicine in the Far East with the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. He became interested in the disease that confronted him, including filariasis. In that disease he recognized the parasites in peripheral blood films and also in postmortems material.

He noted the nocturnal appearance of the parasites in the peripheral blood and postulated that a blood sucking insect might be responsible for transmitting the infection. Manson proved the presence of the microfilaria in the mosquito Culex fatigans, thus supplying the missing link in the life cycle of the disease.
History of Filariasis

A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC
Egyptian doctors were well aware of their limitations, however, and were told not to inflict unnecessary suffering on their patients, so there were many case where they had to say at least – ‘An ailment not to be treated’. They were recommended to take note of the treatments and medicines they used and of their effects, so that they had a record for similar cases in the future.

There were medicines to be taken internally, other to be applied to the outside of the body, and others still to be inhaled. Egyptian ingredients that can be identified today appear to be sound herbal remedies. However, some medicines had ingredients such as mice, beetles and dung, which aimed to drive out the demons causing the illness.

The Egyptians had a remarkable knowledge of the way the body worked, and knew about its internal arrangements through mummifying the dead. For them, the heart was the most important organ; they new that it pumped blood round the body, and that the pulse ‘spoke the messages of the heart’. They also knew that injuries to one side of the brain affected the opposite side of the body.

Doctors sometimes used surgery as well as medicine to treat patients, and opened injured skulls to relieve pressure in the brain. Before an operation the surgeon gave his patient a drink, presumably a painkiller, ‘to render it agreeable’. In the New Kingdom the painkiller might have been opium, imported from Cyprus. Because of the importance the Egyptians attached to ritual purity the surgeon and his assistants washed themselves and purified the instruments in fire before the operation. Both of these would cut down the risk of infection.

The Egyptians were a deeply religious people and prayers would always be used as well as medicines, even for the simplest ailments. In difficult cases, magic might be employed. It was also possible to visit temple of a deity associated with medicine, such as Imhotep, which had priests trained as a doctors. At some temples the sick could spend a night close to the god’s sanctuary. During such stay, called ‘incubation’, the patient might be cured by the deity, or dream of the god and receive instructions for treatment. Even if no help was forth coming, the sufferer was spiritually comforted.
A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

Bird Flu H5N1

A flu pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which people have little or no immunity, and for which there is no vaccine. The disease spreads easily person-to-person, causes serious illness, and can sweep across the country and around the world in very short time.

The highly pathogenic Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 virus is an emerging avian influenza virus that has been causing global concern as a potential pandemic threat. It is often referred to simply as "bird flu" or "avian influenza" even though it is only one subtype of avian influenza causing virus.

In 1918 the “Spanish Flu” pandemic swept the world, stemming from the H1N1 influenza A virus, and killed between 50 million to 100 million people during the 18 months of the pandemic. In 1957, the "Asian Flu" outbreak claimed more than 100,000 lives. To blame was the H2N2 influenza virus. In 1968, the H3N2 virus was responsible for the loss up to 750,000 lives in the "Hong Kong Flu" pandemic.

1997: In Hong Kong, avian influenza A (H5N1) infected both chickens and humans. This was the first time an avian influenza virus had ever been found to transmit directly from birds to humans. During this outbreak, 18 people were hospitalized and 6 of them died. In 1998, H5N1 is found in two more people in Hong Kong. One eventually dies.

In 2003, 83 people are infected with the H7N7 strain, with one fatality. In 2004, the H5N1 and H7N3 strains infected dozens of people in Vietnam and Thailand--and two in Canada. Many of these people died.

In 2005, strains have been found to infect people in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Around 60 people have died, and strains are being detected in animals now for the first time in such places as Romania, Greece, Turkey, Russia, England In 2006, increased numbers of Antiviral Medication, stockpiling of medications and many tests around the world on wild animals and birds.
Bird Flu H5N1