earthworm2.0: croesius: "I'd like to know who's plunking the monkeys."

I had no idea that Anne frank had syphilis....

NO no no no, Helen Keller had the clap.

FunkOut: earthworm2.0: croesius: "I'd like to know who's plunking the monkeys."

I had no idea that Anne frank had syphilis....

NO no no no, Helen Keller had the clap.

I have the clap and I'm giving it to you!

Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange. 30th anniversary edition. Praeger, 2003.

At least in this case, it was the natives who infected the crews rather than the other way around.

In the South Pacific and other tropical ports of call, there continues to be a quite similar Treponemal disease called "Yaws." It is nearly identical to Treponema palladium under the microscope save for a few genetic markers which, during Columbus' time, wouldn't have been on anyone's radar. In fact, most adventurers called Treponema palladium "The French Disease." Something to do with sheep? (Oh those Frenchies!)

Yaws is caused by Treponema partenue and is endemic to places like Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and New Guinea, as well as other isolated tropical locations.

While primary and often secondary Yaws (and Syphilis) are now successfully treated with various antibiotics, you will still see tertiary Yaws amongst the elders of some tribes in the tropics which completely mimic tertiary Syphilis. Once the disease has progressed to the tertiary stage, it is not treatable with antibiotics and eventually causes dementia, open suppurating sores, and a rather disgusting odor of rotting, gangrenous flesh.

Happy New Year! :-)

The first reported human "patient zero" would be Monsieur Gaetan Dugas, a flight attendant for Air Canada.

The earliest crossover of HIV from "chimp" to human most likely occurred long before Gaetan did his wild sexy business in the San Francisco bathhouses, perhaps as early as 1959.

As with most virii, many events must occur before a previously non-lethal virus evolves to one as horrific as HIV.

Link (new window)

Gaetan Dugas was posthumously vilified by most of the medical community as being "Patient Zero," but it now seems as if he was just a scapegoat for a frightened populace.

Hope that clears things up for ya.