The shocking photos of syphilis victims before penicillin

The shocking photos of syphilis victims before penicillin

Pre penicillin era - Congenital syphilis. This is what happened when a woman with syphilis gave birth.

Syphilis was one of the most horrendous illnesses in history, beginning as weeping sores around the genitals, followed by a rash that covered the entire body.

The second stage involved flu-like symptoms and sores that looked like warts on the mouth and genitals. At this stage the patient is at their most contagious.

Then, a slight reprieve as the symptoms began to clear and the disease remained dormant for up to a year. It must have been such a relief. But while the outward symptoms might have disappeared, this stage heralded the onset of the inner symptoms, as the bones, heart, nerves and brain were attacked.

Then came the most terrifying stage of all; the tertiary stage of the sexually transmitted disease where painful ulcers appeared on the face, and as the sores got deeper, the flesh dropped away, leaving deep craters. The ulcers ate away at the bone and caused the bridge of the nose to cave into the face — a condition known as “saddle nose”.

“No nose clubs” began to open as a way to offer support to people who had lost their noses to the brutal disease. Ugly and painful lesions and growths covered the body, and towards the end, the patient suffered blindness, paralysis, dementia and seizures as the nervous system was attacked.

Then, 91 years ago a miracle arrived — penicillin.

Today, as more and more sexually transmitted diseases are becoming resistant to antibiotics, it’s time we remember the sheer devastation that was caused by syphilis and the lengths people would go to as they tried to relieve their agony.

When German physician Joseph Grunpeck was struck down with syphilis, he described it as “so cruel, so distressing, so appalling that until now nothing more terrible or disgusting has ever been known on this earth”.

Historians have varying opinions about the origin of syphilis. Some believe it was first picked up in the Americas by Columbus’s fleet in 1493. It’s believed French troops came down with the disease in Naples in 1494.

Others maintain the disease came from elsewhere and had existed prior to the 15th century.

Anyone who was struck by the shocking disease was seen as a disgrace and “unclean”, and every country that was affected by syphilis was blamed by the neighbouring country for the outbreak.

Prostitutes were also blamed for the spread of the disease. In 1864, the British government passed the Contagious Diseases Act, which allowed police officers to detain women they suspected as being “common prostitutes” so they could be examined for venereal disease. Even though the act was eventually repealed, it caused a lingering connection between sex workers and syphilis.