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History AdviceSyphilis is still a major disease, but it’s hardly the fear-instilling, epidemic-producing thing it used to be. In Europe during the 1600s, syphilis spread like wildfire throughout Europe. Although there is nothing romantic at all about the symptoms or treatment, the disease actually received its name poetically. A poet named Fracastoror in 1530 wrote about a shepherd suffering from the Great Pox in “Syphilus.” Since the epidemic in Europe coincided with Columbus’ return from the American in 1493, some historians have theorized that the disease was actually brought back to the Europe by sailors who contracted it from natives in the West Indies. Since war was ravaging the continent during this period, the movement of troops was just about the most perfect conduit for an epidemic imaginable. Other historians disagreed, however, pointing to ancient accounts in writings as varied as the Bible and Chinese documents that are eerily in agreement with symptoms associated with late stage syphilis. Since there are no accounts of illnesses compatible with syphilis in accounts of New World natives, many have speculated that if anything, it was Europeans who brought the disease to them rather than the other way around. Gonorrhea and syphilis were assumed to be differing types of the same disease until the 1800s. It wasn’t until a French scientist in 1837 discovered that they were in fact two specific diseases. This discovery was as a result of experiments on syphilitic chancres. This scientist, Phillipe Ricord, also discovered that syphilis goes through three distinct stages of infection. For a long time, syphilis was treated with mercury which was administered either orally or topically. The mercury induced heavy salivation, which was thought to remove the humors which caused the illness and the hot vapor baths worked similarly. It is suspected that the doses of mercury used were close to lethal and also caused symptoms which were similar to the disease. Edward G. Robinson starred in the movie Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet which told the story, mostly factually, of Paul Ehrlich's breakthrough in the battle against syphilis. His discovery of chemotherapeutic methods of battling the disease by seeking out and destroying the infecting organisms paved the way for the introduction of penicillin. Penicillin at first seemed to be the true magic bullet in the fight against syphilis. As it turned out, however, new strains developed immunities to this and other antibiotics. Unfortunately, the wild and woolly use of antibiotics to treat the disease unveiled the problem of using antibiotics. Although the promise of eradicating syphilis seemed on the horizon just a few decades ago, STDs are making a comeback that makes it almost seem more likely that an epidemic will be experienced before the eradication of syphilis. |
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