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March 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
Problem Epidemics in Recent Times
By Dr. Tom Miller, Staff Writer
E
pidemics are often thought
of as something that
occurred in medieval times...
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Viruses have existed since the
dawn of time. Over hundreds of millions of years, our ancestors have been
accumulating retroviral DNA within
our own bodies. Scientists speculate
that around 100,000 elements - or 8
percent of the human genome - can
be traced to a viral ancestor. From
these viruses come the epidemics
human beings have faced over the
centuries. The United States itself has
experienced several epidemics over
the past few centuries: smallpox, yellow fever, cholera and polio are just
a few.
The smallpox epidemic was the
first known disease outbreak in our
country with the arrival of Europeans
in 1633. While smallpox has been
around for thousands of years,
the inhabitants of North America
remained unexposed until the arrival
of European settlers in the 1600s.
Over the course of 1633-1634, the
disease swept through the New
England region, wiping out entire
Native American tribes. Some one
hundred and fifty years later, a group
of refugees from the Caribbean
Islands brought yellow fever with
them to Philadelphia. Conditions
were perfect for the pro