These online learning programs, funded by the generosity of The Pfizer Foundation, were recorded live and include all slides and video demonstrated at the lecture.

The History and Evolution of Infectious Disease Starts Here Requires Real Player. Get it, Free!

Humans have been the food for infectious pathogens for 10,000 years. Where did disease come from and how does it affect human evolution? This forty-five minute lecture and slide presentation given by Dr. Donald J. Ortner explores the origin of disease and how it relates to the development of human civilizations. By studying the effects that leprosy, tuberculosis, and various forms of treponematosis, including syphilis, have on human bones, the history of disease can be traced throughout the ages and around the earth.

Dr. Donald J. Ortner

Dr. Donald J. Ortner is a curator at the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology. Since 1988, Dr. Ortner has been participating in research on hundreds of human remains excavated from medieval archeological sites in England. His research concentrates on evidence of disease, evolution of host-parasite relationships in infection, the human immune response to disease, and the significance of disease in human biocultural adaptation.