Blog Day Thirty-Five: Athenian Plague vs. Coronavirus

Today for our classwork we were asked to write about the coronavirus compared to the Athenian plague. There are many differences between these two illnesses, especially since they are more then 2 centuries apart from each other, and medicine has advanced a lot since the Athenian plague spread. I did research about the Athenian plague. I already knew, from a past assignment, that the disease got to Athens from their shipping ports, just like the US got COVID-19 from our airports. The plague came from sub-saharan Africa, south of Ethiopia. COVID-19 came from China. The symptoms of these two illnesses are also different. the plague's symptoms are a very high fever, then "violent ulceration" and diarrhea. If someone survived the plague, the experienced finger and toe loss, blindness, and memory loss (sometimes about others and/or about themselves). Coronavirus symptoms are a fever, and coughing/sneezing. The virus is a respiratory disease. Based off the plague's symptoms, the plague was not a respiratory disease like the coronavirus is. The plague killed 1/3 of the Athenian population, whereas the fatality rate for the virus is only growing. Although the plague had horrible symptoms, I think the effects of the coronavirus will be worse than the plagues.

Source

https://www.ancient.eu/article/939/the-plague-at-athens-430-427-bce/