History

• Main Author: Sigurdur Sigurdarson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Pálsson; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.292.8420

Hydatid disease was first described in Icelandic literature about the year 1200. According to the first qualified physician in Iceland, Bjarni Pálsson (1719-1779) was echinococcosis about 1760 one of the most frequent diseases among the human population, and was also commonly observed in sheep and cattle. Autopsies and questionaries indicate that 20-25 % of the inhabitants might have been infested by hydatidosis about 1850. The nature of the disease was still unknown at that time. The dog population was estimated to be 15.000-20.000, or about one dog for every three or four people. AtthesametimetherewereinCopenhagen1dogfor every 30-32 persons. Obviously there were too many dogs in Iceland. The sheep, cattle, dogs and humans lived in close contact. The dogs often shared a room and even bed with the family, and were the best playmate for the children. The people lived mostly in primitive houses at that time and under primitive hygienic conditions. It is therefore not wonder that the hydatid diseaseflourishedaslongasthenatureofthedisease was still obscure. In 1849 the Danish physician P.A.Schleisner (1819-1900) concluded that one out of every six Icelanders suffered from hydatid disease. In 1862 doctor Harald Krabbe (1831-1917) from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen studied the hydatid problem in Iceland. He found that 28 out of 100 dogsandmostoftheoldsheepandcowsthatwere slaughtered were infested with echinococcus cysts. Experiments he carried out in cooperation with an Icelandic physician Jón C Finsen (1826-1885) proved the relationship between taenias in dogs and the hydatid cysts in humans. Doctor H. Krabbe realized that most important was to inform the people of the nature of the