When was syphilis discovered

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In this story, we learn that the disease has been passed on to him by his father from his grandfather at the time, the disease was thought to be transmitted paternally during conception. The nobleman is soon to be married, but upon confirmation from the physician that his offspring would be affected, he decides to end his life rather than marry or otherwise avoid the marriage see here for a detailed analysis of the piece.

The association between syphilis and the world of literature is fascinating. The name of the disease originated from a poem called "Syphilis, Sive Morbus Gallicus" "Syphilis, or the French Disease" , written by Italian physician-poet Girolamo Fracastoro in The poem tells the story of a shepherd named Syphilus who blamed and insulted the Sun-God for the drought that had led to the demise of his flocks and in return received the deific punishment of this horrific disease.

During the first years after the first reported syphilis outbreak in the Old World in see below where the origin if syphilis is discussed , the disease was much more severe compared to modern venereal syphilis and the agony of the affliction inspired many authors and poets to write about their suffering.

During the last few years of the s, Italian poet Antonio Cammelli, while suffering from cutaneous manifestation of the disease, wrote a sonnet that compares syphilitic lesions that cover his body to a dress as he addresses a woman: "Lady, I am dressed as a French man, Over the next few centuries, the description of signs and symptoms of syphilis in the literature seems to reflect a seemingly attenuated form of the disease that resembles modern venereal syphilis.

These writings allow us to travel back in time to get a glimpse of how this disease has affected humanity over the past years.

Despite our desperate attempts to fend off syphilis over the past few centuries, the disease keeps rearing its ugly head throughout the world. Penicillin G, aka "the Silver Bullet," which was and still is an effective treatment for syphilis especially for primary, secondary or early latent infections , was discovered about 30 years after the story above was written.

The disease should be nothing to worry about by now in the U. However, for the past decade, the incidence of syphilis in high-income countries, including the U. Primary and secondary syphilis rates in the United States by region, The U. To add insult to injury, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC 's effort to eliminate syphilis ended in December due to lack of funding that unfortunately coincided with a sharp increase in disease incidence.

In , the rate of reported primary and secondary infections was 9. The increase in primary and secondary infections could be due multiple factors, including an increase in pre-exposure prophylaxis PreP usage and the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected individuals, both of which could lead to increased condomless sex among men who have sex with men MSM.

From the guaiac tree a decoction was made, the resulted potion was boiled and the patient was assumed to consume the mixture daily for 30 days. Before drinking the potion, the patient was covered in blankets in order to induce perspiration, and a mild purgative was also administered [ 15 ]. Guaiacum officinale guaiac tree , used widely for the treatment of syphilis [ 21 ]. Paracelus was one of the first supporters of the mercury treatment.

Mercury was used in Arabic medicine in the treatment of several dermatomes as well as leprosy, and succeeded to gain rapidly an important place in medical field at that time. Mercury is a potent diuretic that also leads to excessive salivation when administered in toxic doses. There were several methods of administering mercury.

Thus, in a mixture with grease, mercury was administered topically, leading to ulcerations. Barbarossa pill, named after the Turk admiral who gave the pill to his soldiers and was affected by the malady, contained a mixture of mercury and perfume essence and fruit flavours [ 7 ]. Mercurous chloride calomel, Hg2Cl2 was a white salt able to be administered orally, topically or by injections. The metallic form of mercury was administered also under the form of therapeutic fumigation.

Patients seemed to find the adverse reactions of the treatment acceptable, however, the treatment lead to systemic intoxication hidrargirism and pneumonia [ 33 ]. Bismuth salts were introduced in syphilis treatments in These compounds were less toxic than mercury, in the same time bearing a stronger bactericidal effect that the former, consequently, becoming the cardinal heavy metal employed in syphilis treatment [ 33 ].

German scientist Paul Ehrlich received Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in for his discovery of arsphenamine Salvarsan. The scientist discovered the compound that acted like an antibiotic by accident, while working on finding a cure for Trypanosoma brucei. The safer novel drug that superseded the more toxic and less water-soluble salvarsan as a treatment for syphilis was Neosalvarsan, also an arsenic compound. Both Salvarsand and Neosalvarsan were replaced in the treatment of syphilis by Penicillin, after The laboratory in which famous compound was invented [ 21 ].

Observing that fever lead to symptomatic improvement of neurosyphilis, various methods of fever induction have been experimented with turpentine, tuberculine, mercury and even Salmonella typhi. In , the Austrian physician Julis Wagner-Jauregg includes malaria in the treatment of syphilis. Malaria induced fever paroxysms able to be controlled, as quinine had already been discovered. Jauregg injected patients suffering from malaria with blood presenting Plasmodium vivax.

The patients exhibited fever paroxysms lasting for approximately 6 hours and core temperature returning to normal values; quinine was injected after cycles on a 2 day period, in order to treat malaria. In , Alexander Fleming discovered penicilin and from , it became the main treatment of syphilis [ 7 , 29 ].

Nowadays, worldwide, prevention and treatment programs control syphilis spreading. Treponema pallidum infection in men not only provoked a disease that represented a threat to humans for many centuries, but it also had a tumultuous history.

From examining it, one could learn how easy was to place stigma not only on individuals affected by the disease, but on entire nations, as countries were blamed along the history for the spread of the disease.

Throughout the centuries, syphilis has affected individuals of various origins, from monarchs, painters and philosophers to low income people, mainly due to promiscuity. Various treatments to cure the disease were tried along the centuries; nowadays, penicillin and prevention programs control the disease. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List J Med Life v.

J Med Life. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Sep 14; Accepted Jan This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Abstract Before the discovery of Treponema pallidum as the etiologic agent, the origins of syphilis have been the subject of several debates. Keywords: syphilis, syphilis treatment, history of syphilis. Introduction Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema Pallidum, a bacterium classified under Spirochaets phylum, Spirochaetales order, Spirochaetaceae family, but there are at least three more known species causing human treponemal diseases such as Treponema pertenue that causes yaws, Treponema carateum causing pinta and Treponema pallidum endemicum-responsible for bejel or endemic syphilis.

Hypotheses on the origin of syphilis The pre-columbian hypothesis. Syphilis in artistic representations The oldest artistic representation of syphilis is considered one on a Peruvian jug dating back to VIth century, depicting a mother suffering from syphilis holding a child in her arms; the mother shows a saddle nose and superior incisive teeth with notches on their free margins.

Open in a separate window. Conclusions Treponema pallidum infection in men not only provoked a disease that represented a threat to humans for many centuries, but it also had a tumultuous history. References 1. Hackett CJ. On the origin og the human treponematoses pinta, yaws, endemis syphilis and venereal syphilis. Bull World Health Organ. Tehnica; Syphilis at the Crossroad of Phylogenetics and Paleopathology.

Rothschild BM. History of Syphilis. Clinical Infectious Diseases. Fee E. The wages of sin. The Lancet. Foa A, compiler. The relationship between military medicine and modern sex education is a fascinating historical development.

The first reported outbreak of syphilis was during a military campaign in Europe. For centuries, military medicine was challenged by the effect of sexually transmitted disease on combat readiness, and thus national security. In response to widespread syphilis and gonorrhea infection among soldiers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the U.

These actions dovetailed with Progressive-era priorities for public health, which emphasized education and infectious disease prevention. Public health agencies and the military synergized their interests into successful campaigns. The ideal of a healthy military force helped advance sex education as an acceptable subject and worthy endeavor for social agencies.