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Syphilis[/SIZE]
Syphilis is a Sexually Transmitted Disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum affecting only humans.
It is by far the most important of the classical STDs (not counting HIV, Hepatitis B, Herpes genitalis), and one of the diseases with the most fascinating histories.
Symptoms:
(Sorry, no pics for two reasons: The content may not be appropriate for this site, and medical sites are extremely iffy with copyrights. If youre interested, google for Syphilis pics; youll at least see numerous thumbnails.)
Syphilis is a slowly progressing disease, and the infected dont feel really ill for most of the time. Nevertheless, it is far from being a mild disease; untreated, stage III is deadly.
Stage I
The primary affection, one typically genital ulcer (chancre), and indurated corresponding lymph nodes
Stage II
If untreated, about 25% of affected progress to this stage within several weeks, with almost any thinkable dermal symptoms (never vesiculae, though). Plus unspecific symptoms, like fever, headache, joint pain, generalized lymphpadenopathia.
After a latent phase of years, about 10% of originally affected progress into the severe
Stage III.
The characteristical lesion is the
gumma, a granuloma that is mostly found in the skin, but can affect almost any organ, including bones, the eye, CNS, and the cardiovascular system. Obvioulsly, especially those located in the CNS (leading to dementia), and the aorta (which often cause ruptures) are fatal.
History
The first major outbreak of syphilis dates to the year 1495AD, when the French king Charles VIII besieged the city of
Naples. It can not be said for sure if it occurred in the city, or in the camp of Charles army; however, it was so devastating that the soldiers (who were mainly mercenaries) fled back to their respective home. The transmission of the disease was so rapid and traceable, many languages called the disease after the nation it seemed to come from
In France: Neapolitanian Disease, or Italian Disease
In Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Hungary: French Disease (or French Measles in England)
In Poland: German Disease
In Russia: Polish Disease
In Scotland: English Disease
In the Ottoman Empire: Frankish/Christian Disease
In Japan: Portuguese Disease
Also, it was spread by European sailors to India and China within some years but, there are no records about outbreaks in the Americas.
It needs to be mentioned that this plague had little in common with the slowly progressive syphilis we know today, but showed a dramatical course, killing about 1/3 of affected within weeks, mostly due to fever and ulcers all over the integument. And of course, considering the limited medical knowledge of these days, a number of other diseases were wrongly subsummarized with
morbus gallicus, especially since the Order of St.Lazarus (who was responsible for the leper houses) was abolished during this time. But today, there is little controversy about that plague resembling the first manifestation of syphilis.
In 1530, the Italian scholar Girolamo Fracastoro published a mythological
poem about a shepherd boy with the name Syphilis who offended Apollo, and was punished with the disease.
After the initial wave, syphilis developed into the slowly form we know today, and was widespread for centuries. Neurosyphillis was the most common reason to end in the madhouse. As a result, the entire medical discipline of Dermatology was in fact established as a split-off from Neurology for treating syphilis during the first half of the 19th century in France.
Even in the 1920ies, about 10% of all Germans (other European countries shouldnt differ from that, but I have no other data) were suffering from syphilis, and syphilis was a major cause of death, accounting for about 1%.
Famous victims of syphilis:
Erasmus of Rotterdam, Paul Gauguin, Francisco Goya, Guy de Maupassant, Franz Schubert, Lenin,
Al Capone
Infection rates in the Western nations were pretty stable for the last decades (about 1100/year in Germany), but are increasing again since some years; not so much because of globalisation, or tourism (
), but because it is still more common in Eastern Europe and especially the former Soviet union.
Treatment of Syphilis:
Over centuries, the standard treatment of syphilis (and most other skin diseases, btw) was
quicksilver paste. Not that theres the slightest evidence of any curative effects, but from a marketing POV, quicksilver was an ingenious medication. The symptoms of quicksilver intoxication are similar to syphilis (rash and CNS alterations)
So, either you recovered, then it was of course thanks to your doctor and his great cure, or you died from either the syphilis or the Hg intoxication but in this case, it was always addressed to the disease.
Another, at first sight even more bizarre, cure for syphilis was malaria. Surprisingly, this one indeed was a correct observation: The treponema is highly sensitive to heat, and fever above 41°C can kill it. And yes, compared to stage III syphilis, the milder forms of malaria are the lesser evil. But of course, we should not forget the knowledge about infectious diseases in former centuries was highly limited; malaria was the prime example for the miasma theory (malaria = bad air, in swamplands), so we shouldnt believe there was something like a deliberate infection with malaria before 1900. But then, it was successfully employed for some years.
In 1909, Paul Ehrlich developed the arsenic-based chemotherapeuticum
Salvarsan (the very first specific chemotherapeuticum *ever*), which allowed for an effective treatment of stage I and II syphilis.
Today, syphilis can be cured with antibiotics; the first stages usually are easy to cure, stage III is a rarity, but here health cannot be fully restored. In fact, the biggest problems arise from the personalities of the typical infected; thats why one-time treatments with injection of high doses of antibiotics are widely used.
(Online sources for this part of my answers are hard to come by other then Wikipedia; the historical data is easy to find, but medical sources in the net are rarely free. But, I was highly interested in medical history during my time at university; you can trust me here and, I can provide you with more info, just not free online links.)
The Origins of Syphilis:
As luceafarul already pointed out, there is controversial discussion if syphilis was brought to Europe from Haiti by
Columbus crew, and then spread via Spanish whores to Spanish Mercenaries later serving in Charles VIII army.
First, the facts:
- There is clear evidence of bone affections compatible with treponematosis (remember, the gummae, which can be typically found in bones close to the skin, like the shinbone) in Europe or the Mediterranean before discovery of the New World. Still, those are rare findings.
Especially Dr. Simon Mays of the English Heritage's Centre for Archaeology discovered a case dating back to before 1445 at the graveyard of Rivenhall, Essex, (small note: The article indicates future DNA testings, but since those werent published until today, I doubt that worked) and more cases at Kingston-upon-Hill.
Another article about bones from a cave in Israel.
- Syphilis was around in the Americas before. The natives had ways to treat (not exactly cure) it already, and there are bone findings as well.
- The first outbreak of syphilis in Europe dates to 1495.
- Any time a population encounters a disease for the first time, the symptoms are dramatically more severe. This is widely known for small pox and Native Americans, and the so-called Plague of Thucidides may have been the first outbreak of measles.
What makes me wonder about the Pre-Columbian theory is: Why was a disease that rampaged through all of Europe within five years from 1495, and causing millions of deaths over the next centuries, limited to some isolated cases in England and Israel? Its not like those bone affections are too hard to spot, and its not like bones from early medieval graveyards are a rare finding in Europe.
So, the theory I personally believe (and thats what I've been told in a seminar about plagues) is:
Much like malaria can be found in Europe and Africa, treponematosis was indigenous to the Old
and the New World. But like Malaria tropica and Malaria tertiana are caused by different strains of plasmodium, Id consider different strains of treponema. And linking the outbreak of Naples to Columbus crew is plausible.
But, this is only a theory; only clear DNA findings can ever answer that question.
Now,
if that theory turns out to be true, we could really say America stroke back. How many Native Americans died to European diseases? IIRC, about 10 millions. The death toll to syphilis is several times higher
Now, who's turn is it?
I'd say, it's a tie between Birdjaguar for 'Syphilis' and luceafarul for the harder to find details.
So, whoever of you wants to come up with an interesting questions next, may have it.
