On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 ,Tom Bri wrote:

>Back to the original post, I have often thought that paleo man was 
>far more resistant to infections in cuts and abrasions than are most 
>moderns who work in soft, clean environments, just because of the 
>vaccination effect.
>
This is probably correct. We need to take into account, too,
the sparse population in hunter-gatherer times and the lack 
of prolonged, co-habitation contact with domestic animals 
(cows, pigs, ducks etc.). So there would have been far less 
opportunity for infections to spread between human and for 
viruses to jump to other species in that less-crowded world.

Keith