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Malignant Spirochaetes
Time for a long-overdue educational post, and guess what, it's a revolting parasite. Who'd a-thunk it?
Word Of The Day : syphilis - sexually transmitted disease with diverse symptoms, caused by the spirochaete Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum.
(Why am I covering this one anyway? It's a biologically complex disease, there's some interesting research on it, and I'll be doing a panel on plagues at Swancon - so why not?)
Genetic studies of the bacterium and various South American strains suggest that syphilis is a descendent of yaws, a devastating skin disease caused by Treponema pallidum pertenue found in humid tropical areas worldwide. T.p.pertenue is highly contagious and spread by touch. If the Columbus theory is correct, the mutant strain of Yaws was brought back from the New World and needed a different method of getting about in a cold climate and clothed culture. Becoming an STD would have done the trick nicely, going from yaws to whores.
Right from the outset the new disease was appalling - see this description from one Ulrich von Hutten in 1519
“Boils that stood out like Acorns, from whence issued such filthy stinking Matter, that whosoever came within the Scent, believed himself infected. The Colour of these was of a dark Green and the very Aspect as shocking as the pain itself, which yet was as if the Sick had laid upon a fire.”
Naturally, the Europeans wanted to find somebody to blame, and the disease was also called the "Italian disease" in France, the "French disease" in Italy and Germany, "Spanish disease" in the Netherlands, "Polish disease" in Russia, & the Turks couldn't decide between "Christian disease" or "Frank disease" (frengi). After sailors reintroduced it to the tropics (no doubt it had missed the warm weather), Tahitians called it the "British disease". It only became known as Syphilis after a renowned Italian medic wrote a poem about it.
On the other hand, it was little over 50 years between the first known outbreak which was killing people within months, and the settling down of the symptoms to the 'mild' form we know today, where you can linger on another 50 years. This change in the virulence of a novel pathogen isn't that unusual, especially if it only has a single species as host. Syphilis, introduced to a - haha - virgin population, couldn't run amok indefinitely without running out of hosts - it would have been under a strong selective pressure to mutate further into less deadly forms, encouraging strains where the host could go on spreading the disease for years.
Be that as in may , modern, 'mild' syphilis can still do things like this to you.
Indeed, smallpox, no minor plague in of itself, was so-called because this Great Pox was caused much larger horrifying lesions, chancres, and granulomas.
It's an appallingly versatile disease - as well as the open sore you get at the site of infection in the first stage, secondary stage syphilis can cause rashes, infectious lesions fever, sore throat, malaise, weight loss, headache, meningismus, enlarged lymph nodes, acute meningitis, hepatitis, renal disease, hypertrophic gastritis, patchy proctitis, ulcerative colitis, rectosigmoid mass, arthritis, periostitis, optic neuritis, intersitial keratitis, iritis, and uveitis. Or not give you any symptoms at all and remain latent but contagious for years.
1 to 50 years later and you can look forward to the granulomas above, neuropathic joint disease, neurosyphilis and cardiovascular syphilis ( syphilitic aortitis, aortic aneurysm, aneurysm of sinus of Valsalva, and aortic regurgitation. Syphilitic aortitis can also lead to de Musset's Sign, a bobbing of the head first noted in Parisian prostitutes. ).
Neurological complications include generalized paresis of the insane - personality changes, changes in emotional affect, hyperactive reflexes, and Argyll-Robertson pupil in which the small and irregular pupils constrict in response to focusing the eyes, but not to light. - and locomotor ataxia, a spinal cord disorder causing a characteristic shuffling gait.
Thankyou Wikipedia. The photos were very graphic.
One aspect of the brain damage you may have seen mention in the House episode 'Poison' is an increased sex drive. I know I've read that somewhere years ago, but I'm buggered if I can find a citation. On the other hand, although such a selective result is entirely possible with finely-evolved parasites, the damage in neurosyphilis is so widespread and general that I'm reluctant to give the spirochaete that much credit - quite without the complicating factors of human personality even without infection.
There's been lots of famous victims - including HP Lovecraft's father, who died insane in an asylum when Howard was young - quite possibly this contributed to his various phobias and morbid fears.
As far as treatment goes, poisonous metals worked fairly well. Deliberately infecting somebody with malaria worked brilliantly - Treponema is vulnerable to fever - and earned one guy a Nobel Prize in medicine. But penicillin was the real breakthrough and remains the best treatment at least until the spirochaetes finish evolving resistance - although the infamous Tuskagee Study showed that some people were still willing to let infected African-Americans die untreated and unknowing from the disease, in order to further study it.
Word Of The Day : syphilis - sexually transmitted disease with diverse symptoms, caused by the spirochaete Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum.
(Why am I covering this one anyway? It's a biologically complex disease, there's some interesting research on it, and I'll be doing a panel on plagues at Swancon - so why not?)
Genetic studies of the bacterium and various South American strains suggest that syphilis is a descendent of yaws, a devastating skin disease caused by Treponema pallidum pertenue found in humid tropical areas worldwide. T.p.pertenue is highly contagious and spread by touch. If the Columbus theory is correct, the mutant strain of Yaws was brought back from the New World and needed a different method of getting about in a cold climate and clothed culture. Becoming an STD would have done the trick nicely, going from yaws to whores.
Right from the outset the new disease was appalling - see this description from one Ulrich von Hutten in 1519
“Boils that stood out like Acorns, from whence issued such filthy stinking Matter, that whosoever came within the Scent, believed himself infected. The Colour of these was of a dark Green and the very Aspect as shocking as the pain itself, which yet was as if the Sick had laid upon a fire.”
Naturally, the Europeans wanted to find somebody to blame, and the disease was also called the "Italian disease" in France, the "French disease" in Italy and Germany, "Spanish disease" in the Netherlands, "Polish disease" in Russia, & the Turks couldn't decide between "Christian disease" or "Frank disease" (frengi). After sailors reintroduced it to the tropics (no doubt it had missed the warm weather), Tahitians called it the "British disease". It only became known as Syphilis after a renowned Italian medic wrote a poem about it.
On the other hand, it was little over 50 years between the first known outbreak which was killing people within months, and the settling down of the symptoms to the 'mild' form we know today, where you can linger on another 50 years. This change in the virulence of a novel pathogen isn't that unusual, especially if it only has a single species as host. Syphilis, introduced to a - haha - virgin population, couldn't run amok indefinitely without running out of hosts - it would have been under a strong selective pressure to mutate further into less deadly forms, encouraging strains where the host could go on spreading the disease for years.
Be that as in may , modern, 'mild' syphilis can still do things like this to you.
Indeed, smallpox, no minor plague in of itself, was so-called because this Great Pox was caused much larger horrifying lesions, chancres, and granulomas.
It's an appallingly versatile disease - as well as the open sore you get at the site of infection in the first stage, secondary stage syphilis can cause rashes, infectious lesions fever, sore throat, malaise, weight loss, headache, meningismus, enlarged lymph nodes, acute meningitis, hepatitis, renal disease, hypertrophic gastritis, patchy proctitis, ulcerative colitis, rectosigmoid mass, arthritis, periostitis, optic neuritis, intersitial keratitis, iritis, and uveitis. Or not give you any symptoms at all and remain latent but contagious for years.
1 to 50 years later and you can look forward to the granulomas above, neuropathic joint disease, neurosyphilis and cardiovascular syphilis ( syphilitic aortitis, aortic aneurysm, aneurysm of sinus of Valsalva, and aortic regurgitation. Syphilitic aortitis can also lead to de Musset's Sign, a bobbing of the head first noted in Parisian prostitutes. ).
Neurological complications include generalized paresis of the insane - personality changes, changes in emotional affect, hyperactive reflexes, and Argyll-Robertson pupil in which the small and irregular pupils constrict in response to focusing the eyes, but not to light. - and locomotor ataxia, a spinal cord disorder causing a characteristic shuffling gait.
Thankyou Wikipedia. The photos were very graphic.
One aspect of the brain damage you may have seen mention in the House episode 'Poison' is an increased sex drive. I know I've read that somewhere years ago, but I'm buggered if I can find a citation. On the other hand, although such a selective result is entirely possible with finely-evolved parasites, the damage in neurosyphilis is so widespread and general that I'm reluctant to give the spirochaete that much credit - quite without the complicating factors of human personality even without infection.
There's been lots of famous victims - including HP Lovecraft's father, who died insane in an asylum when Howard was young - quite possibly this contributed to his various phobias and morbid fears.
As far as treatment goes, poisonous metals worked fairly well. Deliberately infecting somebody with malaria worked brilliantly - Treponema is vulnerable to fever - and earned one guy a Nobel Prize in medicine. But penicillin was the real breakthrough and remains the best treatment at least until the spirochaetes finish evolving resistance - although the infamous Tuskagee Study showed that some people were still willing to let infected African-Americans die untreated and unknowing from the disease, in order to further study it.