Talk:Plague of Athens

message: :It is believed that after 2,400 years the disease has probably evolved, but the plague has been attributed to a number of known diseases. 
Anon contribution moved here -- are you saying that bubonic plague and its interaction with humans has evolved over 2,400 years?  Certainly possible.  And then are you saying that a bubonic plague has been blamed for other outbreaks of known diseases?  Please clarify and re-enter your edit.  Thank you.  WBardwin 02:14, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clarify, please 

message: Please list below concerns or issues which led to the placement of the clean up tag.  Thank you.  WBardwin 02:05, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've made a few recent clean ups -- as have other editors since January.  Does anyone have specific concerns at this point?  Any direction the article needs to go?  Let's plan on removing the tag soon.  Discussion welcome.  WBardwin 06:27, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

text: No comments received.  Removing tag.  WBardwin 20:29, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clean up tag 

message: The cause appears to have been typhoid fever.
First paragraph of article:
Athens, Greece, January 23, 2006 – Scientists have for many years debated the cause of the Plague of Athens. Analysis carried out by Manolis Papagrigorakis and colleagues using DNA collected from teeth from an ancient Greek burial pit points to typhoid fever as the disease responsible for this devastating epidemic. The study appears on the online version of The International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID) published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
69.6.162.160 02:51, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The clinical symptoms do look like a hemorrhagic fever, but the epidemiology does not. Those disease, especially the vicious African fevers, are spread through blood contact, correct? I am constantly irritated by the Associated Press writing articles about Ebola outbreaks in particular, and referring to Ebola as "highly contagious" Scary does not equal highly contagious. --Dan (talk) 17:06, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cause of the Plague of Athens 

message: I completed a fairly thorough examination of this topic as a medical student. I did not conclude that Pericles suffered from the same disease as the Plague of Athens as he seemed to have a very different set of symtoms to the classic disease. My conclusion was that the Plague was most similar to a haemorrhagic fever, like ebola or Marburg virus, as part of this study I also went through most other suggested diagnoses and explained why I thought they were wrong. It is worth remembering we have only one source for a description of the symptoms.
:The clinical symptoms do look like a hemorrhagic fever, but the epidemiology does not. Those disease, especially the vicious African fevers, are spread through blood contact, correct? I am constantly irritated by the Associated Press writing articles about Ebola outbreaks in particular, and referring to Ebola as "highly contagious" Scary does not equal highly contagious. --Dan (talk) 17:06, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Differential Diagnosis

message: Any chance I could have a read of that paper, I'm quite interested in the prevelance of haemorrhagic fevers  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.239.6.72 (talk) 12:05, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Differential

message: I should go read the 1999 papers, but to me, the symptoms don't fit typhoid very well. You can see bronchitis/pneumonia with typhoid (personal experience; I've had typhoid with severe bronchitis), so that's distinct possibility. But the list of symptoms from Thucydides sure sounds like smallpox - the eye and oral symptoms, the skin eruptions. As for something like Ebola, the spread of the disease doesn't sound like one of that group of diseases. It feels more like an air or water borne disease, and the Ebola type bugs aren't.
Snow (talk) 14:02, 24 May 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Why not smallpox?

message: The hastily written section on the plague's effect on the outcome of the war as well as the reference to the eventual Macedon conquest is pretty lame.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.144.143.69 (talk) 16:33, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  War outcomes 

message: Bottom paragraph in section begins:
"As Typhoid is most commonly transmitted through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions, it is an unlikely cause of a widespread plague, emerging in Africa and moving into the Greek city states, as reported by Thucydides." (Emphasis mine.)
Much other information in this article indicates that typhoid would be more likely rather than unlikely under those transmission conditions, at least in overcrowded, war-torn Athens, but the sentence cites no authority one can check so, unless someone objects I suggest we draw the conclusion consistent with the evidence and logic, rather than this one, or delete it as original research, or find a reliable source. Meanwhile I will change "As Typhoid" to "As typhoid" since the disease name is not a proper name. —Blanchette (talk) 07:00, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Added "" tag as Athens was certainly subject to unsanitary conditions at this time and the African origin issue is not explained as to relevance. —Blanchette (talk) 22:03, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Questionable claim in "Typhoid fever" section 

message: I thought I would clarify, given the recent edit history of this article, that this article is not copied from the New World Encyclopedia page  that was referenced. In fact, the New World Encyclopedia entry is a revised version of this article and it says so at the bottom of the page. It states, "New World Encyclopedia editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. --Katolophyromai (talk) 14:14, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Not really copied

message: Changing “It is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies.” in the first paragraph to “The Plague killed about 75,000 to 100,000 people and is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies.”
Changing “ He writes of a disease coming from Ethiopia and passing through Egypt and Libya into the Greek world” to “He writes of a disease originating in Ethiopia and spreading throughout the Mediterranean and eventually into the Greek World”
Add Section “Symptoms”, 
“According to Thucydides, these are the symptoms of the Plague that hit Athens
    Fevers
    Redness and inflammation in the eyes
    Sore Throats leading to bleeding and bad breath
    Sneezing and loss of voice
    Coughing
    Vomiting
    Pustules and ulcers on the body
    Extreme thirst
    Insomnia
    Diarrhea
Thucydides also describes how the illness began in the head and worked its way throughout the entirety of the body."  — Preceding unsigned comment added by FasteningLlama9 (talk • contribs) 21:12, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Additions 

message: This article seems to get confused between typhus and typhoid fever. PatGallacher (talk) 22:37, 28 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Typhus, typhoid 

message: Theres no information on how you prevent it, Its like they didnt even try to research or make face coverings such as masks and this is really confusing. They didnt even try back then. Hyper1 5 (talk) 19:35, 20 May 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  questions., and preventions? 

message: This article is a mess. So much opinion added and so many sources not cited. 
“Very nearly unbeatable” sounds very specific and scholarly doesn’t it? My goodness. 
“According to Thucydides, not until 415 BC had Athens recovered sufficiently to mount a major offensive, the disastrous …” what is up with this backward and negative grammar? “Athens recovered sufficiently by 415BC to mount a major offensive.” Isn’t that much easier to understand?
This article needs to be tagged for clean up. 96.27.57.243 (talk) 08:15, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article needs re-written 

message: — Assignment last updated by Oneton III (talk) 03:18, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: Plagues and People

message: — Assignment last updated by Maxwellmcgowan (talk) 20:37, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: Plagues and People