Welcome To Iconocast

How to add a URL link from your web site to the Iconocast web sites

Virtual tour of Southern California

Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: athens + typhoid + fever  Related to the article below (Last Update: 12/1/2008)

News results: Standard Version | Text Version | Image Version

Browse Top Stories Recent Last hour Last day Past week Past month Archives All dates 1920s 1910s 1900s 1890s 1880s Other dates Other dates Other dates: [hide] - Blogs News Alerts RSS | Atom About Feeds Your search - athens + typhoid + fever - did not match any documents. Suggestions: Make sure all words are spelled correctly. Try different keywords. Try more general keywords. Try fewer keywords. Try Google Blog Search. Also, you can browse today's headlines on the Google News homepage.

Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: athens + fall + typhoid  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/7/2008)

New York Times Fu's gold: Phelps will win eight, then shave Chicago Sun-Times, United States - Though Phelps came up short in the same pursuit four summers ago in Athens, winning a "mere" six golds to fall one behind Mark Spitz's 1972 record, ... Sean Ingle guardian.co.uk Some little-known Olympians who are easy to adore The Olympian Native Muskogeean thinks his star pupil?s record will fall Muskogee Daily Phoenix Chicago Tribune - Baltimore Sun all 880 news articles » BBC Sport Best of the games The Age, Australia - They are up against the Americans, who were second to us at the World Championships and at the Athens Olympics. They've got a couple of very high-profile ... Nation paints pretty picture, but it's just a facade Baltimore Sun The Olympic Battle to Watch Washington Post China rises as medal race contender Washington Times Daily Star - The News-Press all 458 news articles » Washington Post Olympic Gymnasts Won't Chase Perfect 10 as New Scoring Debuts Bloomberg - The International Gymnastics Federation reviewed the system after scoring irregularities at the 2004 Athens Games. The governing body said Paul Hamm, ... Raj Bhavsar rises above tumbles of past New York Daily News Paul Hamm may join brother Morgan in Beijing Kansas.com all 177 news articles » The Thursday edition of Athens? dailies at a glance Athens News Agency, Greece - 33 minutes ago TA NEA: "Taxation shock in the fall - Small-medium incomes are the first victims". TO VIMA: "Alogoskoufis? turn causes turbulence over taxes and spending". ... ITV.com More at stake than just medals Northern Echo, UK - Forty-one medals, 11 more than were won at Athens four years ago, lifting Britain to eighth in the overall medal table. Achieve it, and UK Sport will be ... Hopes remain high for Team GB, but 41 medals a stretch Scotsman all 418 news articles » Irish Independent . . . and 5 more you definitely won?t be able to avoid Irish Independent, Ireland - 40 minutes ago Complete mortification followed when they could only manage third at the Athens Olympics, losing to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and eventual champions Argentina ... Names to look out for at Beijing Games Lanka Business Online, Sri Lanka - The Japanese star finished second to Adrian Annus at the 2004 Athens Olympics but was awarded the gold medal after the Hungarian muscleman was disqualified ... Washington Post Bulldog football players report to Athens for fall camp Access North Georgia, GA - Aug 3, 2008 By Staff reports ATHENS -- The University of Georgia welcomed its football student-athletes to campus Sunday as they officially reported in preparation for ... Dawgs Open Fall Camp: Richt Transcript HawgsIllustrated.com (subscription) Bulldogs report to campus for fall camp Gainesville Times Bulldogs report to fall camp AZ Central.com Albany Herald On-line - Atlanta Journal Constitution all 368 news articles » Xbox 360 Review - 'Beijing 2008: the Official Video Game of the ... WorthPlaying.com, CA - Aug 6, 2008 The game has admittedly expanded upon the number of basic events from the previous Summer Olympics video game, Athens 2004, but because of the repetitive ... US Olympic basketball team beats Australia to end exhibition season Los Angeles Times all 3 news articles » Canada.com Introducing the Beijing Olympics Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX - He is the back-to-back world champion and is looking for redemption after a fall from the high bar cost him gold in Athens. A 10 isn't quite perfect in new scoring system Rutland Herald all 39 news articles »

Typhoid fever led to the fall of Athens

Researchers 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 plague that began in Ethiopia and passed through Egypt and Libya to Greece in 430-426 B.C. changed the balance of power between Athens and Sparta, ending the Golden Age of Pericles and Athenian dominance in the ancient world. It is thought that up to one third of the Athenians, including their charismatic leader, Pericles, perished in the epidemic.

Until now our understanding of this outbreak was based on the account by the fifth century B.C. Greek historian Thucydides, who himself was taken ill with the plague but recovered.
Despite Thucydides' detailed description, researchers have not managed to agree on the identity of the plague and several diseases, including bubonic plague, smallpox, anthrax and measles have been implicated in the emergence and spread of this epidemic.

A mass burial pit unearthed in the Kerameikos ancient cemetery of Athens and dated back to the time of the historical outbreak, provided the required skeletal material for the investigation of ancient microbial DNA.
Aided by modern DNA recovery and amplification techniques, Papagigorakis et al used dental pulp to identify DNA sequences similar to those of the modern day Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, the organism that causes typhoid fever.
The results of this study point to typhoid fever as the probable cause of the Plague of Athens.

Typhoid fever is transmitted by contaminated food or water, and nowadays the disease is most common in developing countries and in travellers returning from these countries.

Source: The International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2006