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Volume 2, Number 3—July 1996
Letter

AIDS: Déjà Vu in Ancient Egypt?

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To the Editor: The recent letter by Olson et al. (1) on the plague of Athens and the “reemergence (?)” of Ebola virus prompts brief reiteration of an earlier communication (2) placing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) back in history, possibly in the time of the pharaohs.

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Thumbnail of The hieroglyphic symbol for disease, translated as "semen" or "poison" (From: Von Deines and Westeneorf (5).

Figure. The hieroglyphic symbol for formula imagedisease, translated as "semen" or "poison" (From: Von Deines and Westeneorf (5).

Translations of the Papyrus Ebers from ancient Egyptian literature repeatedly make reference to difficulties in the diagnosis of conditions under the names disease, uxedu-disease, and uha-disease (3). The interpretation of these diseases has been inconclusive among Egyptologists. However, the many remedies proposed for the ravages of , whether by itself or complicated by uxedu- or uha-disease, brand it as a scourge of first magnitude. is mentioned 50 times in four papyri (28 times in Papyrus Ebers, 12 times in Papyrus Berlin, 9 times in Papyrus Hearst, and once in the London Papyrus [4]). The hieroglyphic symbol (Figure) for (5) is shown below.

Could this be documentation of HIV, or more accurately its prototype, occurring in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs?

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Richard J. Ablin
Author affiliation: Innapharma, Inc. Suffern, New York, USA

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References

  1. Olson  PE, Hames  CS, Benenson  AS, Genovese  EN. The Thucydides syndrome: Ebola déjà vu? (or Ebola reemergent?). Emerg Infect Dis. 1996;2:1556.
  2. Ablin  RJ, Immerman  RS, Gonder  MJ. AIDS: a disease of ancient Egypt? N Y State J Med. 1985;85:2001.
  3. Bryan  CP, Smith  GE. The, In: Ancient Egyptian medicine: the Papyrus Ebers. Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1924:11923.
  4. Ghalioungui  P. Magic and medical science in ancient Egypt. London, UK: Hodder and Stoughton, 1963.
  5. Von Deines  H, Westeneorf  W. Wöterbuch der medizimischen texte. Berlin, Germany. AkademieVerlag. 1961;7:129.

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Cite This Article

DOI: 10.3201/eid0203.960317

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Page created: December 20, 2010
Page updated: December 20, 2010
Page reviewed: December 20, 2010
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
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