Tag: infectious disease
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Vaccinating a young child
The entire household has assembled to watch a child being vaccinated against smallpox. Inoculation with material derived from cowpox lesions was still sufficiently novel to excite such interest. It had been first attempted in 1796 by Edward Jenner, who used the term vaccination because the Latin for cow is vacca and cowpox was called vaccinia.…
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“Scarlet letters” — The depiction of scarlet fever in literature
Emily BoyleDublin, Ireland Scarlet fever, named for the erythematous skin rash that may accompany streptococcal infections (Fig 1), is often considered a disease of Victorian times. Associated with high levels of morbidity and mortality (up to 25%) when epidemics were common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe and the US,1,2 it is seen less…
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Cholera in France 1859
“The scene is the interior of a rough and ready hospital; upon the beds are the poor riches in the throes of agony and death. To the left one raises himself, nude and haggard, and howls with insane vehemence; beside him another grows blue and rigid as a medical attendant hurries to his side with…
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St. Francis heals a leper
Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747) was a Bolognese painter nicknamed “the Spanish One” (Lo Spagnuolo) because he wore tight clothes characteristic of the Spanish fashion of the time. In this paining from the Brera, Milan, he shows St. Francis healing a leper by touching the shoulder which presumably had been affected by the disease. Spring 2020…
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David Bruce, discoverer of brucellosis
Early life Every medical student would be expected to know something about brucellosis, though quite unlikely to ever see a case. He would have to know that the disease in man may be caused by the Brucella of goats, swine, or cows, but apparently not by that of dogs, foxes, or fish. Bright students might…
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COVID-19 and Malta’s Black Plague epidemic of 1813
Victor GrechPembroke, Malta Malta in the British Empire In the nineteenth century Malta had a population of around 91,000 people and was governed by the British Empire. Despite its small size and absence of natural resources, the island was an important Mediterranean crossroads, with a vital natural harbor and a crucial military base. Malta had…
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Danse of the virus
S.E.S. MedinaBenbrook, Texas, United States It is born with tens of thousands of identical brothers and sisters when the thin-walled, transparent, fatty bubble of their nurturing womb suddenly bursts—releasing them into the tumultuary rapids of the host’s bloodstream. It possesses no sense of self, no manner of consciousness—even in the most rudimentary way. It lacks…