Schistosomiasis: Napoleon, Snails and Stalemate Across the Taiwan Straits

Abstract

Parasitologists are very lucky that the ancient Egyptians practiced mummification. Think about it—apart from written records, we know very little about the epidemiology of diseases in ancient times: where they occurred, who were infected, how many were infected, were certain occupations at higher risk of infection, were men more likely to be infected than women, children more than adults? Moreover recorded histories were usually about kings and pharaohs, and they were written to glorify their conquests and victories, and precious stone tablets and papyrus were usually not wasted on recording the lives of ordinary farmers, household servants, carpenters and bakers. We can thus be grateful that the funerary practice of preserving the dead as mummies, among even the moderately wealthy inhabitants of ancient Egypt, provided objective records that answer many of the questions asked about at least one disease—schistosomiasis. Fortunately, the poor of ancient Egypt also bury their dead in shallow graves in the desert, where the high temperatures and dry air rapidly desiccated and preserved much of the corpses’ organs and tissues by natural mummification. Therefore we can learn a lot about schistosomiasis in the entire social spectrum of society during ancient times.