The story of the first major epidemic of a sexually transmitted disease (and why they blamed America)



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The poor man was dying with the symptoms caused by the disease. That's how it happened 10 years ago

"(Throughout the body) there are boils similar to an acorn They emit a stench so stinking and stinking that the one who smells it, smells it infected, the color of the dark green pustules, to see them is worse than to feel the pain they inflict, even though the sensation is like lengthening on fire. "

Such was the description of his ills by the patient

.] It is estimated that by the decade of 1490 the European population had recovered deaths caused by the plague, also known as Black Death One in three died as a result of the disease on the whole continent

  Ancient Medicine

Preparation of a remedy based on guayaco.

With l 39; increase in the population came prosperity But all was not positive

The war was end nomic, famines occurred frequently … and unknown disease began to appear

The beginning

In early 1495, King Charles VIII of France invaded Naples trying to stake his claim to the kingdom. But the troops began to be infected by a new disease

No one had seen anything like it . Doctors of the time found no reference in the old medical books.

This worried the population as much as HIV when it was discovered in the 80s of the last century.

He had a similarity with this disease:

It was syphilis

  Syphilis of death

The illustrations of the time accounted for the lethality of the disease.

People were terrified because they were spreading very fast. He arrived in Scotland, Hungary and Russia.

With the exception of the elderly and children, everyone was in danger of catching it. He was in the brothel, but also in the castle .

It is believed that the Kings Francisco I and Henry III of France, as well as the Emperor Charles V, suffered from the disease. It is believed that neither the monks nor the clerics escaped the contagion.

Hierarchy does not matter. The Cardinals, Bishops and even the Popes Alexander VI and Julius II suffered it.

The speed with which it spreads reveals much about the badual habits of society at that time.

History [19659010] The French, of course, called it Neapolitan disease. But the rest referred to her as the French disease. Initially, he had no technical name

Finally, a French doctor suggested to refer to him as " venereal disease " because at that time it was considered that his main cause was the act of love, which, in turn, was linked to the goddess Venus.

The epidemic caused by syphilis was different from that seen previously : it was not concentrated in a particular area or station-bound year

Everyone was at risk to get sick. And once that has happened, it seems that the person has never recovered. There was nowhere to escape to be saved.

If the torment was difficult to wear during the day, it was worse at night. Those who suffered it continuously shouted because of the pain they felt in the bones.

Spatial rot

What was the cause of the disease? It was thought that it was a punishment of God for sins committed by society.

So the first step in dealing with it was to repent and pray for God's protection.

God, however, sent signs of other means The astrologers of the time claimed that the thing happened had to do with two eclipses of the sun and the with fluencia ] of Saturn and Mars.

"The rains that fell in the year in all the countries were so copious, that the land was contaminated by stagnant water, it was not surprising that the disease was introduced, "said a professor of medicine at the time.

The conjunction of stars contaminated the climate, which in turn caused a poisonous rot of the air. The consequence was the putrefaction of the human body

  Sexual death

It was considered that women were responsible for trying the poor and transmitting the disease.

Esperanza

It was believed that mercury was the cure for syphilis. It was common to use it to treat skin problems at that time. And that was the treatment that was recommended to the German soldier. Breathe the hot mercury gas.

But the cure was worse than the disease . The patients salivated uncontrollably, their teeth fell and they lost their reason. However, it has continued to be used for many years, both inside and out.

Until a new remedy appears in 1517: guayaco, a shrub found in Haiti. Reportedly, that was what natives of the island were using.

The trunk chips were simmered in the water and the liquid was drunk twice a day. The complete treatment included spending 30 days in an extremely hot room to sweat and reject the disease.

At the same time a relationship between syphilis and divine punishment was established by personal sin and not collective. . The person was infected by an unlawful badual relationship

In this context, women were the ones who transmitted the disease and tried the poor in the manner of Adam and Eve.

Stigma also affected children whose parents suffered from syphilis because it was an inherited disease. Whole generations considered themselves cursed

America or Europe?

Contemporaries thought it was a new disease

Once detected it was pbaded from person to person, it was badumed that it was to be

It was believed that it was a new disease

he had arrived in Europe with the sailors who came back from America with Christopher Columbus

They would have docked in Barcelona, ​​they united the troops to Naples and the prostitutes who followed the The army took care of the rest.

But American medical historians never liked this theory, so they presented archeological evidence to prove that syphilis was an old disease originally from Europe that had appeared with a new virulence.

The Remedy

It is difficult to know if the debate can be resolved. But there is certainty about certain aspects. The decades before and after the 1500s were great changes in European society.

Urban life, changes and search for places to live, new war techniques and changes in badual behavior.

The environment of the inhabitants from that moment on, it has been constantly modified. And this, in general, increases the incidence of diseases. Thus the emergence of new epidemics was probably inevitable.

Syphilis came and stayed, extending, especially in time of war.

With the arrival of modern medicine the bacterium that causes the disease was identified in 1905. And in 1910, the first effective treatment was discovered.

But it was only in 1943, with the discovery of penicillin, that the cure was found. 19659003] The night cries stopped

BBC

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