History
of Human Disease
Humans
have always had to deal with disease. Skeletons more than
12,000 years old show evidence of tuberculosis and other diseases.
The 9400-year-old mummified remains of Spirit Cave man, found
in Nevada in 1940, indicate that he suffered from back problems
and tooth abscesses. The remains of Ramses V, ruler of Egypt
around 1150 bc, show that his face was disfigured by smallpox
scars.
Disease has had a dramatic impact on human history. For most
of the 250,000 years that humans have been on the earth, disease
has played a central role in limiting population growth. As
ways to combat disease were discovered, people lived longer
and had more children, who lived long enough to have children
of their own. The human population slowly increased and then
exploded. By 1804 the human population reached 1 billion.
Just over 100 years later, in 1927, after the advent of the
first vaccines and the recognition of the importance of sanitation
and safe water supplies, the population had doubled to 2 billion.
By 1974 it had doubled again to 4 billion. Since then, recognition
that the earth's environment has a limited capacity to support
an ever-increasing population has led to concerted efforts
to limit population growth. Nevertheless, as the 20th century
neared its end, the population had reached 6 billion. It is
expected to rise to more than 8 billion by 2021.
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