Further (grim) evidence Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions work
Scott McPherson
in influenza and infectious diseases
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National Geographic is reporting that on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, in the Venetian lagoon, a mass grave of bubonic plague victims has been unearthed. From the National Geographic news release:
The island is believed to be the world's first lazaret—a quarantine colony intended to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
The lazaret was opened during the plague outbreaks that decimated Venice, as well as much of Europe, throughout the 15th and 16th centuries A.D. Its presence may have helped Venice recover more quickly during the devastating outbreaks...The concept of a lazaret began in 1485, when a devastating plague outbreak hit Venice and killed even the doge, or the head of state, at the time, Giovanni Mocenigo. Venice's government built a public hospital on Lazzaretto Vecchio to isolate the infectious and curb the disease's spread. At the time the island was named Santa Maria di Nazareth, but people also called it Nazarethum or Lazaretum. The second name prevailed and eventually gave rise to the modern word "lazaret."
But conditions in Lazzaretto Vecchio during plague outbreaks were far from modern hospital's standards. "It looked like hell ... The sick lay three or four in a bed," wrote the 16th-century Venetian chronicler Rocco Benedetti. "Workers collected the dead and threw them in the graves all day without a break. Often the dying ones and the ones too sick to move or talk were taken for dead and thrown on the piled corpses."
The lucky ones who survived and recovered spent their convalescence on the near island of Lazzaretto Nuovo.
Thanks to this policy, Venetians were able to curb the damage as the plague struck Europe again and again during the Renaissance... The remains belong to men, women, and children alike. Some show Asian or African features, evidence of the cultural diversity that stemmed from the Republic of Venice's role as one of the most important commercial ports in Europe.
It is fascinating to read that historians speculate that this policy may have saved Venice. The article also goes on to say that rich and poor alike were treated equally during the plague:
"Nobles or lower class didn't make any difference," Gambaro said. "All the sick were forced to stay on Lazzaretto Vecchio, and if they died, they were buried together."
Although today's standards will call for a much higher standard of health care, the discovery -- laden with artifacts, documents and bones, is another confirmation -- calling to us from centuries past -- that NPIs such as isolation and quarantine work.
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