5 Million Dead: The 15th Century Epidemic That Continues to Haunt the World Today
The Renaissance between 1300 and 1600 focused on the revival of education regarding ancient Greece in Rome. It was a time that was dominated by art, philosophy and music.
The era garnered the attention of the world and placed it into beauty and inventions, such as the printing press and the telescope that was considered to be revolutionary.
It was also home, however, to the birth of a new disease that was observed in the late 1400s, which we now call Syphilis. Yes, most people will probably smirk at the idea with many advances in contraception and protection out there. It would also surprise you how long they've been around. Nobody wants to pop in the doctor's office and see worried look of the desk nurse's face once they see the reason for the appointment. We also have to understand why it still persists to haunt humananity centuries later.
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The symptoms for the disease that were observed included genital ulcers, fever, and rashes which later developed into body aches and foul-smelling sores with the protrusions of green acorn-like boils.
Victims' bodies were covered with scabs and tubercles, which started off as bright red but developed into a repulsive black colour.
What started off as sores progressed into ulcers that spread into the hosts' bones, destroying their noses, lips, and eyes and occasionally extending to the throat, making the patient unrecognisable.
Syphilis of Today
In the modern era, Syphilis is a benign sexually transmitted disease that is relatively easy to treat, but in the middle of the Renaissance, became a deadly epidemic that took the lives of five million people.
Experts at the time reported that the version of Syphilis that haunted the era was a much more contagious and virulent strain compared to today and killed off victims at a much greater speed.
With the current world in a stalemate with the coronavirus pandemic, people all over the world now understand the fear and worry of the people that lived in the era of an unknown disease just as the people in the Renaissance faced.
The disease wasn't called with a proper name when it was first discovered, and as its initial spread was nearly at the same time as the Printing Press, the news of the epidemic spread just as quickly as the disease itself.
The spread of the epidemic extended to France, Switzerland, and Germany at the end of 1495, and towards England and Scotland by 1497. According to the Journal of Military and Veterans' Health, Scandanavia, Britain, Greece, Hungary, Poland, And Russia were all hit by the disease by 1500, and 20 years later it expanded to Africa, China, Japan, and Oceania.
Syphilis can be spread by sexual contact or skin-to-skin contact with the infected sores that appear on the body and consists of three phases.