Health Care and Epidemics in Antiquity Nursing Assignment (Essay Sample)

Health Care and Epidemics in Antiquity
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Health Care and Epidemics in Antiquity
The early human societies were hunters and gatherers with small and scattered populations. Importantly, they were exposed to several viral and contagious bacterial diseases such as smallpox that require a vast and dense population to spread. Moreover, the nomadic nature and lifestyle of these societies minimized the possibility of coming in contact with contaminated water and piles of garbage that could attract disease-carrying insects. Additionally, before the early domestication of animals, these communities were less likely to contact diseases carried by birds, dogs, and cattle. However, this is not to say that these early societies lived free of diseases (Drampalos, Stogiannos, Psyllakis, Sadiq and Michos, 2014). Indeed, they suffered from diseases caused by eating animals or passed on by lice and worms. As humans began to live, together in the permanent settlement they started to encounter a new range of diseases.
Importantly, people living in cities and domestication of animals brought about regular contact with parasites and pathogens through fouled waters supplies and poor sanitation. The larger the populations, the easier it became for infectious diseases spread that previously caused minimal havoc to the communities. Moreover, archaeological evidence shows that as the societies started to live in the permanent settlements, they heavily relied on domesticated animals and agriculture as the primary source of food (Hofmann, 2013). Shephard (2015), argues that relying heavily on domesticated animals and agricultural produce, the diets of these communities became less varied leading to malnutrition. Further, the changed diet resulted in the high spread of disease because of reduced immunities. As a result of such epidemic earliest civilizations started developing health care systems and theories regarding the outbreak that they were going through.
Healthcare approaches in Mesopotamia and Egypt
Early Mesopotamian healers had some knowledge of anatomy. They could identify the liver as a source of anger, the heart as the site of intelligence and the kidney as the source of strength. Similarly, they identified that some body part could become inflamed, but there was no explanation for disease process in the body (Drampalos, et al., 2014). Importantly, Mesopotamian tradition was mainly directed towards reducing the external cause of illness trough rituals, incantations, and sacrifices. Importantly, the demonic explanation of the reasons for a sickness in some way was a curse for some offense the individual had committed. Additionally, the belief in the magical and religious cause of a disease also necessitated the assumption that the people who could only treat the diseases were magicians and priests (York, 2012). Importantly, the preservation of the health care system required individuals to seek and maintain a state of purity.
In Egypt, there was a religious and magical explanation with a naturalistic explanation for disease. The understanding of these sicknesses explained how diseases worked within the body of an individual. The Egyptian physicians argued that the body was filled with a set of vessels which included tendons and blood vessels. A large number of remedies in the ancient Egypt were aiming at strengthening the body vessels that could become mute and die. Such an understanding of the body indicates how the Egyptian physicians understood diseases and the body.
Healthcare and illness epidemic in western medical tradition
Early Greek medical writing shows that a doctor famed the teaching of medicine and disease understanding from as early as fifth B.C.E. Further, the Greeks physicians had a good explanation for illness and health care. Importantly, they developed theories that modified and clarified by Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Galen. According to York (2012), the ideas provided a clear understanding of disease management in the western Europe up to the eighteen century. Additionally, the Greek methods of illness and health care management were also adopted in Arabic nations and provided the foundation of Islamic theory on medicine (Shephard, 2015). European and Arabic researchers and physicians continued to use the principles embraced by the Greek medical researchers for the next 1000 years.
Consequently, Greek Hippocratic medical authors considered several building blocks in the body and came up with competing answers. Some argued that the body had vital fluid they referred chymoi. The important argument with the Hippocratic authors in the Greek period was that health requires balance in the body while the disease caused an imbalance (Shephard, 2015). Importantly, treatment for any disease was aimed at restoring the balance in the body. Further, the Greeks believed...