Healthcare and Epidemics in Antiquity (Research Paper Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Healthcare and Epidemics in Antiquity Epidemics are disorders that severely infect a significant percentage of a population (Jedwab et al. 1). These widespread diseases cause a health care crisis, especially in antiquity. During ancient times, epidemics raised havoc due to limited medical knowledge, poor hygiene, and a lack of early detection systems. Due to this, communities experienced high infection rates and mortality. Additionally, non-medical factors such as religious and social ideologies complicated the management of outbreaks and provision of care (Jedwab et al. 3). Therefore, the success of healthcare systems in mitigating epidemics in the classical era was influenced by social beliefs, limited knowledge, and population growth.             Social beliefs significantly influenced the spread of outbreaks and healthcare provision in the classical era. In ancient populations such as the roman empire, the people were made to conform to Christian and pagan doctrines (Kashchuk 614). These ideologies influenced how people viewed outbreaks. For instance, according to Kashchuk (614), Christians purported that plagues affected the non-believers and spoke against pagan science and medicine. Due to this, diseases would continue to spread sporadically and cause mortality. Furthermore, in the plague of Athens, the Greeks postulated that the disease was due to migrant overcrowding that would pollute the air (Jedwab et al. 3). Such communal misconceptions led to the further spreading of the outbreak while hindering scientific advancements.             Spontaneous population growth played a role in outbreaks and dysfunctional health systems. Piret and Boivin (1) argued that the shift to agrarian communities contributed to the spread of diseases due to trade and animal interaction. The close contact was due to people living in common locations with enough resources for sustenance. Furthermore, as mentioned above, a substantial migratory wave saw people move to new areas bringing unknown disorders. The interaction could also merge two epidemics increasing fatalities. However, the migrations and living in modern towns could create think tanks that would allow the exchange of information later used to build on community health practices (Piret and Boivin 4). Thus, population growth contributed to more severe outbreaks while contributing to advancement in healthcare.             Furthermore, limited information significantly impacted outbreaks and limited healthcare. As shown above, the classical era was not only marred by misinformation but also gagging scientific ideas. Due to this, only the elite and influential groups, such as the church, were involved in community health decision-making. In light of this, religious groups would only allow sacrifices as the only solution to medical emergencies (Badash et al. e1018). Also, since medicine was in its infancy, very little information on pathogens, human anatomy, and preventive practices was available for reference. For example, it was not until the 5th Century when the crucial discovery by Hippocrates postulated that diseases were caused by biological imbalances of the human body (Badash et al. e1018). Therefore, a lack of scientific knowledge contributed to regular outbreaks and limited management of the diseases.            In conclusion, epidemics have existed in human societies for ages. The outbreaks caused severe outcomes for communities in the classical era. The epidemics spread fast while hea...