#Simmum

[anirobot]

Quarantine measures in ancient Mesopotamia: how was the dangerous infectious disease treated 4,000 years ago?

King Zimri-Lim's weapons were so familiar to us modern people quarantine, Hygiene and social distance against this infectious disease...

[egmisc]

"Zimri-Lim’s instructions are “matter-of-fact” and contain no explanation, which implies the spread of such diseases — and measures to contain it — were already well-known. Just because this is the earliest reference to contagious disease doesn’t mean it was the first time such an incident was observed; in fact, far from it.

Zimri-Lim’s letters also provide the first verifiable evidence of enforced quarantine.

In one letter, the king ranted that he heard rumors that a woman named Nanna had fallen ill with simmum. Rather than isolate herself, Nanna still “frequent[ed] the palace” and mingled with the other women residing there. Such reckless action, the king raged, “will infect many other women,” as this disease “is contagious.”

The king noted that not only was she banned from socializing with the other ladies of the palace, but everything she had touched must be avoided as well.

"Give strict orders that no one drink from the cup she uses,” the king wrote to his queen, “and no one sit on the seat on which she sits, and no one lie on the bed on which she lies, so that it should not affect many women.”

Today’s pandemic is hardly the first time humans have found ourselves in such a situation. Ancient history shows that the key to survival is quarantining, social distancing and being willing to play the waiting game."