Razi’s unique approach to Amraz-e-Wabaiya (Infectious Diseases): An overview

Abstract

The history of infectious diseases has been documented throughout the ancient ages. A highly infectious disease rabies was well known since Babylonian period mentioned in tomb of Babylonian which is nearly 23rd century B.C. old. Hippocrates the father of medicine was supposedly the first ancient Unani physician to document the infectious diseases with their distinguished clinical features which are today named as malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, mumps and diphtheria etc. Galen proposed miasma theory of disease transmission such as cholera, chlamydia or plague were caused by a miasma (pollution), a noxious form of bad air. But none of them before Razi gave detailed and descriptive features of infectious diseases. The contribution of Razi in the field of medicine is immense and unparallel. The stalwart during the period of 9th century A.D has laid the foundation of fundamental concept of infections while proposing to construct the hospital in the city of Baghdad. This unique approach was adopted when the facilities were very much limited during that period. The sterling contribution of Razi has been acknowledged by the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (May, 1970) in such valuable words “the knowledge of the great Hakim Razi about smallpox and measles showed uniqueness and exactness and his article on infectious diseases was the first scientific and meticulous treatise on this subject”.