Category: Infectious Disease
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Sporozoites: The elusive assassins
Jayant RadhakrishnanChicago, Illinois, United States Almost 5,000 years ago, the Chinese described a disease that presented with intermittent fevers, enlarged spleens, and a predilection to epidemics. Those malarial infections were possibly caused by Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) since P. malariae is unlikely to cause epidemics. The Chinese did not mention mortality following these symptoms; therefore,…
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The history of scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a highly contagious infectious disease that probably has existed for thousands of years. Ancient texts from China and other parts of the world have described symptoms resembling those of scarlet fever. In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates documented a patient with a reddened skin and fever. Centuries later, in 1553, the Sicilian…
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The problem with drinking (water) on airplanes
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Water, water everywhere/Nor any drop to drink.”– The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) In the year 2020, 4.5 billion people flew on commercial aircraft. The previous year saw US airlines carry over 900 million passengers, and only 13% of Americans had never flown on a plane.1 Water is…
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Dr. Gerhard Hansen – A great discoverer
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess.”—Isaac Newton Leprosy, from the Greek lepis, meaning scaly, has been known since antiquity. The disease was widespread in continental Europe and in Scandinavia, reaching its peak prevalence in the twelfth century.1 Leprosy was well established in Ireland in the tenth century. It…
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Quinine and global health
Diego AndradeStalin Santiago CeliQuito, Ecuador Quinine is considered to be one of the most important medical discoveries historically, as it marked the first successful use of a chemical compound to treat malaria. Malaria is an acute febrile disease caused by Plasmodium parasites, which are transmitted through the bites of female Anopheles mosquitoes.1 Without treatment, the…
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Fossilized tick-borne diseases
José de la FuenteCiudad Real, Spain Ticks and tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome are a growing burden for human health worldwide.1-3 Alpha-gal syndrome is an emerging allergy associated with tick bites and mammalian meat consumption. It is a potentially life-threatening immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated reaction to galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal), which is present in…
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BCG: The vaccine that took thirteen years to develop
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Perseverance, secret of all triumphs.”– Victor Hugo Tuberculosis of the lungs (“consumption”) was one of the two main causes of death (along with pneumonia) at the start of the twentieth century.1 In the US, pulmonary tuberculosis killed 194 persons per 100,000 in 1900.2 In one Missouri hospital, nearly 25% of patient deaths…
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Noma: The disfiguring, devouring disease
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden “Maladie dévoreuse de beauté et de vie”1(“An illness devouring both beauty and life”)– Edmond Kaiser, founder of the humanitarian organization Fondation Sentinelle Noma (also called necrotizing ulcerative stomatitis, gangrenous stomatitis, or cancrum oris), is a disease of extreme poverty. It progresses rapidly and is often fatal. Victims of this infection are usually…
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Sanitariums as cure for consumption
The institutions variously called sanitariums (from sanare, “to cure”) or sanitariums (from sanitas, meaning “health”) became all the rage around 1850. They were especially popular with the upper classes, as exemplified in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain by the young Hans Castorp, who decides to spend a few days with a friend at a Swiss…
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Book review: Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, United Kingdom Simon Schama, the eminent historian and broadcaster, has turned his attention to medical history. His new book, gestated and born during the COVID pandemic, is a chronicle of three pandemic diseases that have afflicted humans for centuries: smallpox, cholera, and plague. He opens the book with a quote from Pliny…