HISTORY OF VIRUS-PRE HISTORY TO 18TH CENTURY

1. HISTORY OFVIRUS
(PRE-HISTORYTO 18th CENTURY)
SUBMITTEDTO:
Prof.(Dr.) S. Maherchandani
SUBMITTED BY:
Deepika Jain
M.V.Sc (1st year)
Vety. Public Health

2. IN PREHISTORY
• Over the past 50,000-1,00,000 years, as modern humans
increased in numbers and dispersed throughout the world,
new infectious diseases emerged, including those caused by
viruses.
• Evidence of viral infection can be found among the earliest
recording of human activity, and methods for combating viral
disease were practiced long before the first virus was
recognized.
• Herpes viruses first infected the ancestors of modern humans
over 80 million years ago.

3. • Smallpox, first emerged among agricultural
communities in India about 11,000 years ago.
• The virus, which only infected humans, probably
descended from the poxviruses of rodents.
• Humans probably came into contact with these
rodents and some people infected by the viruses
they carried. When viruses cross this so-called
“species barrier”, their effects can be severe.

4. VIRALINFECTIONS INANTIQUITY
• Some modern viruses undoubtedly were associated
with the earliest precursors of mammals and
coevolved with humans.
• Evidence of certain viral infections has been found,
which occurred during this period:
 Poliomyelitis
 Small pox
 Tomato yellow leaf curl virus

5. POLIOMYELITIS
(The Year 3700 BC)
•The first written record of a virus
infection consists of a heiroglyph from
Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt,
drawn in about 3,700 BC.
•It depicts a temple priest called Ruma
showing typical signs of paralytic,
poliomyelitis.

6. POLIOMYELITIS
(The Year 1193 BC)
• The Pharaoh Siptah rules Egypt from 1200-1193
BC when he dies suddenlly at the age of about
20.
• His mummified body lays undisturbed in his
tomb in the valley of the Kings until 1905 when
the tomb was excavated.

7. CONT…
•Mitchell, noted the shortening of left leg,
which he interpreted as poliomyelitis, in
the early Egyptian mummy from
Deshasheh.
•The club foot of the Pharaoh Siptah
mummy which shows a severely
deformed Pes equinovarus –like left foot
and a shortened leg.

8. SMALLPOX
(The Year 1157 BC)
•Archeologists find “dome- shaped vesicles
similar to those found in smallpox” on three
mummies whose skin, bones and muscles
were preserved in 1898.
•One of these was Pharaoh RamsesV who died
in 1157 BC.
•The mummified head of RamsesV of Egypt
(1157 BC) showing the pustular eruption that
may have been due to smallpox.

9. TOMATOYELLOW LEAFCURLVIRUS
• The earliest desciption of a virus- infected plant
found in a poem written by the Japanese
Empress Koken (718-770), in which she describes
a plant in summer with yellowing leaves.
• The plant, later identified as Eupatorium
lindleyanum, is often infected with Tomato
yellow leaf curl virus.

10. IN MIDDLEAGES
RABIES
• Rabies, a disease that had been recognised for over 4,000
years, was rife in Europe.
• The earliest record of canine rabies appears in
Mesopotamian cuneiform law tablets from about 2,ooo
BC.
• The law sets a heavy fine for any dog owner who allowed a
dog with symptoms of the disease to bite another person.
• The main vector is domestic dogs, but wild animals such
as foxes & bats can transmit the disease to humans.

11. CONT...
• Aelian remarked that a piece of cloth bitten by a rabid dog
could be a potential source of infection to anyone who
comes in intimate contact with it.
• His ominous comment insinuates that mad-dog “venom”
could have weapon potential.

12. CONT…
• The disease’s zoonotic ability thought to have
originated in Mesopotamia, reaching in China in
the sixth century BC.
• Rabies was known in ancient Anatolia by the fifth
century BC, mentioned by Xenophon & Aristotle.
• Rabies arrived in Greece in fifth century.

13. EARLYTO LATE MODERN PERIOD
INFLUENZA
• The first known reference to flu comes from
ancient documents written by Hippocrates as
early as 412 BC . Known as “father of medicine”,
he described flu-like symptoms being
experienced in northern Greece.
• In 1357 AD the word for influenza was born from
the Italian word for “influence”.

14. CONT...
• In 1173, an epidemic occurred that was possibly the first in
Europe, and in 1493, an outbreak of what is now thought to
be swine influenza, struck Native Americans in Hispaniola.
There is some evidence to suggest that source of the
infection was pigs on Columbus’s ships.
• During an influenza epidemic that occurred in England
between 1557 and 1559, five per cent of the population –
about 1,50,000 – died from the infection.The mortality rate
was nearly five times that of the 1918-19 pandemic.

15. CONT…
• The first pandemic that was reliably recorded
began in July 1580 in Asia during the summer, and
then spread to Africa and Europe.
• Within six months, influenza had spread from
southern Europe all the way to the northern
Europe countries, and the infection subsequently
reached the Americas.
• The actual death toll is unknown, bit 8,000 deaths
occurred in Rome alone.

16. CONT...
The next three pandemics occurred in the
18th century
1) In 1729: Influenza pandemic originates in Russia,
spreading westwards in expanding waves to embrace
all Europe within six months. High death rates are
reported.
2) In 1761-1762: Influenza pandemic originates in the
Americas in the spring of 1761 and spreads from there
to Europe and around the globe in 1762.
3) In 1780-1782: Influenza pandemics originates in
Southeast Asia and spreads to Russia and eastward into
Europe.

17. TULIPBREAKING VIRUS
•These flowers are famous for being the most
expensive tulip sold during tulip mania.
• At the peak of this tulip mania in the 1630s,
one bulb could cost as much as a house.
•It was not known at the time that the stripes
were caused by a virus accidently transferred
by humans to tulips.
•The effect of tulip breaking virus are seen in
the striking streaks of white in its red petals.

18. DISCOVERYOFVACCINATION
VARIOLATION
• It is the method first use to immunize an individual against
smallpox.
• The Chinese practiced the oldest documented use of
variolation.They implemented a method of “nasal
insufflaion” administered by blowing powdered smallpox
material, usually scabs, up the nostrils.

19. CONT...
•In 1717,Lady MaryWortley Montagu,
learned about the variolation.
•In 1721, at the urging of Montagu and
Princess ofWales, several prisoners and
abandoned children were inoculated by
the pus from smallpox victims, inserted
under the skin.
•Several months later, childrens and
prisoners were delibrately exposed to
smallpox.
• When none contracted the disease,
the procedure was deemed safe and
members of royal family were
inoculated.
•The procedure then become
fashionable in Europe.

20. VACCINATION
•On May 14, 1796, Jenner took fluid from a
cowpox blister on the hand of a milkmaid,
Sarah Nelmes and scratched it into the skin
of James Phipps, an eight- year old boy.
•A single blister rose up on the spot, but
James soon recovered.
•On July 1, Jenner inoculated the boy again,
this time with smallpox matter, and no
disease develop.
•Thus Jenner had demonstrated smallpox
immunization.

21. THANK
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