Who in your society would treat these people? Would they be treated at home or someplace else? What would be used to treat the illness? Are the treatments likely to be believed to be effective? How might their treatments have worked in comparison to modern treatments?

Alternative for In-Class Assignment 02 Fighting Infectious Agents in Ancient Times

Select a civilization we have discussed: Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece Ancient Rome

Picture yourselves as healers, doctors, physicians, apothecaries, and / or priests. Feel free to be creative as you will be telling a story!! Using the drugs / poisons you have compiled I want you to investigate what people from your society would do to treat a new mysterious illness that has befallen your city.

Illness
The illness began appearing two days after traveling merchants arrived from across the desert. Some of your citizens had high body temperature. They had a cough and shortness of breath. All coughed up blood after the fourth day. Some of them recovered quickly, others their illness turned out to be more serious. For the people with serious illness, it appears to mimic pneumonia. These people had difficulty breathing, their lungs sounded like water lapping at a beach when they took a breath. A few of these had what appeared to be septic shock, their pulses were weak, and their skin tone grayed.

Things to consider
• Who in your society would treat these people? Would they be treated at home or someplace else?
• What would be used to treat the illness?
• Are the treatments likely to be believed to be effective?
• How might their treatments have worked in comparison to modern treatments?
• Did your civilization understand disease transmission? Did they quarantine people or not?
• Did they use magic alongside medicine?

Consider all the potential drugs and poisons we discussed while exploring the civilization you selected. Determine which cure or cures would have been the most effective for your city. You will prepare a brief written overview of the drugs or poisons you selected, your rationale, and justify to the class your choice.

Mortality Rate
Calculate the mortality rate for your civilization. To do this, estimate the number of people in your population and the number that have died – you can use best guess estimates for these numbers.