WEBVTT - From the Vault: Syphilis 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:07.800 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:10.560 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:12.640 Time to go into the Vault, and boy do we 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.600 have a treat for you. This is a grand old episode, Robert, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.440 I know you're very excited about this one. When did 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.720 this originally air in? Yes, this is this is a 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:23.840 much older episode than a lot of the other Vault episodes. 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:29.800 We've discussed. It published August and it's a pair of 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.120 episodes that Julie Douglas and I put together that discussed 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.440 the history of syphilis, how the science of syphilis, how 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:41.519 syphilis works. Yes, the the sexually transmitted disease syphilis, and 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.599 it is just a fascinating topic. It's it's easily one 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.680 of my my favorite episodes of all time. Uh So, 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.920 we we've taken those two episodes and stitched them together 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.160 into one episode. So it might be a little clunky 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:58.240 at times, but all the information is is definitely still valid. 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.200 Will there be vampires, There will be vampires. Be prepared 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.120 for the syphilitic vampire. All right, Well, let's go right in. 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.880 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. From How Stuff Works, 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:19.280 Dot com hey, you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:21.640 My name is Robert Lamb and um Julie Douglas, and 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:23.320 I'd like you to take a moment to just try 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.520 and create, try and imagine the most destructive disease possible. 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:33.160 Imagine the disease that ravages the body. That ravage is 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.240 just about every tissue, every every part of the human 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:40.680 form that it takes down, the sex organs, that takes 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.920 apart the face, takes apart your identity, and in some 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.199 cases ultimately robs you of your mind as well before 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.840 killing you outright. Yeah, you mentioned sex organs. So also 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.400 imagine that there's a moral to mention to this disease 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.280 that would give you the sort of outward appearance that 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:02.280 perhaps you had been engaging in conduct unbecoming to you. Yes, 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:04.480 And of course, in all of this, we're talking about 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.520 a very real illness, and that is syphilis. We're actually 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.360 going to devote two whole episodes to syphilis here. This 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.679 first episode, Syphilis the Great Imitator, is mainly going to 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:19.600 focus on the organism that causes syphilis and how syphilis 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:22.880 manifests itself in the human body. In the second episode, 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.760 we are going to get into the cultural and historical 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.560 impact of syphilis, because that that in its own right 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.040 is an enormous topic of interest because for four and 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:38.600 a half centuries, syphilis ravages the Old World, ravages Western culture, 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.280 and it's it's really kind of difficult to overstate the 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.880 the role that syphilis played in coloring Western civilization during 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.359 that time. Yes, don't run away, because this is alf 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.480 really interesting that the bacteriaum itself is fascinating, and then 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.080 of course the cultural implications. Now we have our first 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:02.760 recorded epidemic of venereal syphilus occurring in Europe, and by 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.880 the close of the fifteenth century you have chaos just 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:10.960 reraining in Naples, Italy, where there's a huge outbreak. In fact, uh, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.600 Pope Innocent the eighth asked French King Charles the Eighth 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.880 to invade the city with troops to try to keep 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.280 it under control. But what do you think happens? Well, 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.200 as we would, as we would eventually learned, sending troops 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.560 and to deal with syphilis not the best strategy because 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:29.920 because that they're going to end up catching the syphilis, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:31.680 and then when you draw the troops out, they're going 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.600 to take the syphilis elsewhere exactly. And the problem here 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.960 is that syphis as being known as the great imitator 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.480 because it has all these different symptoms that at the 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:47.320 outset might be mistaken for other illnesses. So imagine this 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.520 time period in which this was happening and people not 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.040 quite knowing what they were dealing with. Yeah, to quote 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:55.600 Sir William Ostler, he says, no syphilis in all its 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.640 manifestations and relations and all other things clinical will be 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:00.840 added to you. There is no organ in the body, 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.200 nor any tissue in the organs, which syphilis does not invade. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.160 And it is therefore manifestly difficult to speak, at least 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.320 at all concisely of the pathology of the disease, just 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.360 as as it is almost impossible to describe its clinical 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:18.520 symptoms without mentioning almost every symptom of every known disease. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:20.960 And these symptoms are not going to be the same 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.200 from one person to the next. So you have a 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.880 disease that is that is seemingly very stealthy, very nefarious. 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.240 It's uh, it's it's changing its shape, it's changing its strategy, 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.400 it's going dormant, it's popping back up and uh. And 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.000 the whole time everyone's trying to understand what's going on, 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.200 how to prevent it. Uh. Again, there's there's this this 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.560 whole seemingly moral side to it because it's spread through 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:46.800 sexual contact, and it ends up spreading across every social 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.560 level in society. Uh. It's it's a disease that ravages 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.880 the poor, it ravages the rich. It's hitting the royalty, 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.080 it's hitting the clergy, it's hitting anyone who's engaging in 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.080 sexual contact, which everyone. Right. In fact, it is so 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.640 prevalent that you get a couple of references to it 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.479 in Shakespeare's works like Pox of your Houses and Romeo 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.960 and Juliet, which is now a curse like a pox 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.760 on you. It's but the problem with this is that 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.440 we tend to think of it as this antiquated illness, right, 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:21.640 it is not. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:26.279 estimate that annually more than fifty five people in the 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.560 US get new syphilis infections, and during two thousand and 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.440 twelve there were more than forty nine thousand reported new 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:38.320 cases of syphilis compared to forty eight thousand estimated new 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:43.479 diagnosis of HIV. So it is still present and it 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.800 is most common in people between the ages of twenty 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.120 and twenty nine years of age, which has led it 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:54.000 to be called cupids disease by the way. Yeah, and 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:56.200 of course, one other way we should mention that you 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:59.560 can transfer syphilis is through an unborn child, and so 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.000 congenital syphilis, which we'll we'll talk about a little bit 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.040 more later. That's also a huge problem because when the 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.440 syphilis manifests in a newborn child, uh, the the the 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.720 effects are kin it can be pretty disastrous. So once 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.240 against syphilis, even though it is a tremendous interest from 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.560 a historical standpoint, it is not a purely historical disease. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.440 Now we just don't put as much emphasis on it 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:29.160 these days in terms of infectious diseases because it can 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.920 be controlled by penicillin, and we'll talk about that later. Yes, yes, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.200 it can be wiped out by penicillin and uh and 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.920 and that has been a huge advantage in the war 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.560 against syphilis for sure. But still it is it is 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.200 an adversary that that carries on even in the advent 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.800 of what would seem a magic bullet. Yeah, and let's 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:52.360 talk about this dastardly organism also known as treponema palladum. Yes, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.160 such Treponema palladum, which is a treponemal disease. There are 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.919 other treponemal diseases which will get into these and cool 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.680 include a visual penta and yaws. None of these, of 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.680 course are sexually transmitted, but they are essentially skin ailments 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.200 that are that are transferred by skin to skin contact. Yes, 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.560 so they are related to Treponema palladum, but they themselves, 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.960 as you say, are not spread through sexual contact. And 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.400 I should add to to be clear if you want 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:26.480 to get really particular. Syphilis is caused by a subspecies 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.960 of Treponema palladum, essentially Treponema paladum palatum. But for all 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:35.720 intents and references going forward, Treponema palladum ke paalatum syphilis. 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.840 You'll know what we're talking about. Yeah, Now, this is 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.480 a spiral shaped bacterium also known as a sparrow keet 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:46.960 and we're talking about slender, spirally undulating bacteria here and 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.760 again it is most often spread by sexual contact, and 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:56.440 the disease occurs in three primary stages. We'll talk more 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.080 about that and uh, now, these these later stages that 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:06.680 will discuss are not so common in our modern era, right, Yeah, 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.640 because the later stages obviously deal with a case of 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.080 syphilis that has not been treated, not been cured with 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.960 the penicillin. All right, let's let's talk about how syphalis 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:18.760 is transmitted. And I'd like you to think about this, 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.520 uh in terms of an invasion, because that's what it is. 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.080 We're dealing with an invasion of these spiral keets into 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.080 the human body. And this invasion takes place in a 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.280 few different phases. So syphilis can be spread again by 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:36.720 through the through the birthless, sent by kissing, close contact, um, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.760 transfusion of fresh human blood. But the main ways that 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:42.360 it's that it's spreading us through sexual contact. We're talking 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.560 vaginal sex, oral sex, anal sex um. All of these 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.560 will serve as as a as an entry point. Now, 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:52.760 the way that the spiro keets into the body they 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.080 enter through the skin, and when intimate contact of this 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.680 nature is made, that is when when the spiro keet 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.640 enters the body, enters through the skin and there it 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.079 will hang out until it makes itself known in the 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:09.280 form of a syphilitics or also known as a shanker 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:14.439 and shankers occur mainly on external genitals that jina anus 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.040 or in the rectum. They can also occur on the 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.640 lips and in the mouth. So this is when you 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.880 see most of the transmission occur among people when these 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:27.360 sores are present. Right, this is primary syphilis. This is 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.520 first stage syphilis. And think of this in terms of 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.679 the enemy initially getting into the fortress. This is the 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:38.000 shanker is literally the entry point for the for the 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.520 spiro keets. And it may be a small number of 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:42.640 spire keets and maybe a larger number of spiro keets, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:44.120 but this is where they're getting in. This is the 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.040 whole in the fortress wall. Yeah. And these shankers can 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:51.320 appear usually around twenty one days after infection, but sometimes 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.560 as little as ten or even ninety days. Yeah, and 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.240 they may hang around for three to six weeks. And 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.600 here's the thing. They can if you look up pictures 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.240 online and sure you should definitely go into a Google 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:06.520 image search for for what these look like. Your loins, 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.600 your your loins, But they may look pretty intense at times, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.520 but these are painless. Uh, And they're easily confused with 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.560 any number of small skin ailments that may pop up 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:20.920 in even a healthy person's life, you know, the stuff 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:25.280 like ingrown hairs or or you know, or various other bumps. 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:28.400 So that would be caused by by any number of 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.480 other ailments. Again, it's a great imitator. Right now. If 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:34.880 you do not get treated at this point, well then 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.840 it gets into secondary syphilis. And during this stage that's 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:42.079 when you see those skin rashes, swords in your mouth. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.120 And so that's the primary stage and the and it's 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.319 key to note here that the shanker disappears advantishes. So 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.120 if you were concerned about it, if you really I 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:53.679 wonder what this painless, you know, ugly spot on my 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.880 genitals is, well, then it goes away. And that's one 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.520 of the dangers that we see over and over again 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.720 with syphilis is that the the infection seems to go away, 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.760 the illness may seem to go away, but as we're 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.560 about to learn, it does not. And again, imagine yourself 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.320 in you know, the fifteenth century. If you have this 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.240 and then that disappears, you think, oh, everything is fine, right, 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.160 So I got was upset over and over nothing, and 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.840 you know, maybe you didn't even notice. It's it's entirely 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.840 likely that one wouldn't even notice that the shanker had 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.960 popped up. Now, most likely you wouldn't have been treated 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.640 at that point in time because there wasn't anything necessarily 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.600 to treat you with that was really effective. So it 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:37.840 would then develop into a secondary stage called secondary syphilis, 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.680 in which you would have skin rashes and or sores 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:45.520 in your mouth, vagina, and anus also called mucus membrane lesions. Yeah, 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.800 and you may also see other varying symptoms such as fever, lethargy, headaches, 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.839 general body aches, hair loss. And this is the point 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.560 of the invasion in which the enemy, the enemy made 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.760 it in in the primary stage and in second dary syphilis, 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.800 the enemy has spread throughout the castle, all right, and 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.640 and is making itself known throughout the invaded city, that 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.599 is the human body, right, and you are highly contagious 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:12.880 at this point in fact, gentle mill source caused by 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.600 syphilis make it a lot easier to transmit and acquire 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.560 things like HIV infection, right, so you can get a 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.560 secondary infection at this point in fact, there is an 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:26.000 estimated two to fivefold increased risk of acquiring HIV if 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.319 you're exposed to infection when syphilis is present in these 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:33.520 first and second stages. Now at this point after secondary syphilis, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:36.440 and here again we see that the secondary syphilis, this 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:40.400 outbreak period, this goes away as well, which again could 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.600 lead someone to say, well, that was horrible, and maybe 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.000 they may not even realize that it was connected to 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:49.199 the primaries outbreak, and they might, but they can easily imagine, well, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.440 I'm done with this now, it's it's it's it's done. 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.480 It's finished. Whatever illness was affecting me, the pox has 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:56.800 left me, right. Yeah, But little do they know that 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.640 this is just the latent stage of the US and 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.520 it's just waiting around. It might not even reveal itself 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.800 for decades. Yeah. So imagine the enemy has invaded the castle, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:08.640 They've made a lot of mischief, and then suddenly they 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.480 seem to be gone. But they're not gone. There in 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.840 the basement. They're in the basement, They're in there in 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.600 every house in the city. There. They've literally become a 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.400 part of the city. They're essentially a sleeper cell. Uh. 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:23.400 And that is what latent syphilis is. Tertiary syphilis. The 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.840 stage really is quite gruesome because it kind of takes 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.640 everything in the body down to the studs, or more so, 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.120 I should say, it's like you say, the sleeper cells 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.840 in the basements, they become stronger and they come roaring 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.079 back into the body and they cause a lot of havoc. Yeah, 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.520 it's I mean, we see this over and over again 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.120 with with syphilis. But it has such metaphorical power. Is 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:49.000 one of the reasons that I think we're aside from 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.280 its uh, its power to harm and di figuous, uh, 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:55.400 the reason we're drawn to it so is you do 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:59.080 see this idea of of the the infection. It flared up, 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.400 then it flared up again, and then it comes back 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.960 in only fifteen of the case is a much stronger 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.760 form in the tertiary stage, far more debilitating, far more 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.959 destructive and ultimately lethal stage of the illness. Yeah. In 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.479 this late stage you could have symptoms that include difficulty 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.280 coordinating your muscle movements, paralysis, not being able to move 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.680 some of your body, uh, numbness, blindness, and dementia. And 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.240 then in the late late stages, the disease begins to 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:34.120 ravage your internal organs and that is what can result 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.560 in death. And this is one of the remarkable things 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:39.040 about this is that this stage can occur ten to 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:44.120 twenty years after primary syphilis. So this is it's again 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.920 the metaphorical phorical power of this. It's like the the 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:50.880 sins of the young individual coming back to destroy the 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:56.040 older individual. You know. It's um, it's it's gruesome stuff, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.520 and and and against that one may not even remember 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.680 that for style, break all that clearly and suddenly all 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.240 these changes are happening to their body and ultimately to 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.320 their mind. Yeah. And we have largely up until this 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.800 point treated this in a very clinical fashion and not 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.040 really talked about the sights and the sounds and the 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.840 spells of what this looks like, which we'll do more 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.000 in the next podcast. But just know that at this point, um, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.320 this this, this is really adding injury to insult because 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:28.320 you might have lost your nose, you know, and recovered 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.960 from that, and and all of a sudden you think 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.320 you're out in the clear, and boom it comes back 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:38.080 in in such a corrosive manner that you find out 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.920 that this is really the death knell. Yeah. Corrosive is 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.760 an excellent term to use because you see the you 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.280 see loss of teeth, you see the destruction of the 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.640 palette in the mouth, you see you see the the 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.440 the collapse of the nose into what is known as 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.680 saddle nose, where basically the nose collapses and around the 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.240 bridge and becomes kind of upturned and smaller looking, and 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.440 then they eventually um appear to rot entirely. Uh. Saddle 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:06.560 nose is also caused can also be caused by just 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.440 damage to the nose. You'll see boxers that suffer from 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:15.480 saddle nose. Also. UH. Extreme cocaine addiction can somehow sometimes 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.000 have that effect on individuals. But yeah, you're seeing it 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.960 attack your facial features, You're seeing it attack uh, your 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.480 genitals in a very destructive manner, and then also getting 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:29.440 into your organs. You only again to back to the 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:31.320 quote that I read at the beginning of the podcast 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.640 by h Dr William Osler. It it the spiral keets 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:39.440 of syphilis attack every part of the body like nothing 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.600 is off limits. To go back to that castle analogy 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.040 from from earlier, the invader has lived in the city 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.800 for ten to twenty years and now in potentially every 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.200 household in the city has decided to just burn everything 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.040 to the ground right now. The other part of this 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.160 is that syphilis, as we have mentioned before, can be 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.240 tru trans admitted through the placenta. So what does this mean. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.159 It means that during that time period from the fifteenth 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.520 century to the twentieth century, there are a lot of 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:12.440 children born with syphilis also called congenital syphilis, and even 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.000 to this day, according to the World Health Organization, you 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:19.760 have a million children born annually with congenital syphilis. Yeah, 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:22.719 and it's very serious stuff because nearly half of all 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:25.840 children infected with syphilis, whether or in the womb, die 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:29.680 shortly before or after birth, and sometimes this can also 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.320 result in still borns um And despite the fact that 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.439 syphilis can be cure with antbiotics if caught early, there 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.600 are arising rates among pregnant women in the United States, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.480 and that of course has increased the number of infants 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:46.840 born with this. Now, some of the complications include blindness, deafness, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:51.240 deformity of the face, and nervous system problems. Now, why 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:53.040 does syphilis hang out in the body so long, you 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.840 might be wondering, Well, Uh, it's it maybe due in 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:59.400 part to keep a pallatum having a slow dividing time 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.439 of thirty to thirty three hours, and it's likely that 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:06.040 t pautum undergoes an even slower rate of division during 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.920 the latent stages of the disease. So it's a it's 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:14.200 it's a long living creature. From a bacterial standpoint, yes, 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:19.320 it's like a bacterial croc pot Yeah. Alright, Um, let's 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.200 talk about the current state of treatment and infections. Oh, 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.439 but I say current, I have to mention that there 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:27.959 are a couple of old timey ways in which they 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.560 were thought to be cures for it, one of which 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:37.560 is mercury. Yes, inhaling mercury vapor. In fact, there is 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.640 This was so common for hundreds of years that a 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.200 little phrase came out of that, A night with venus 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.400 a lifetime with mercury. Yeah. So you would find yourself 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.680 going regularly for essentially skin treatments, taking these these mercury 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:56.160 steam bats and and enduring the harmful effects of that 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:00.000 of that mercury anihilation on top of the ravages of syphilis. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.200 It did kill the sparrow key but yes, it also 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.439 poisoned the patient. Yeah. Well, there are a few different 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:10.080 factors involved there, because on one hand, uh, their you know, 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.240 their arguments to what effect the mercury had in killing 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.639 the sparrow keets. But then the sparrow keets are so 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:20.040 entrenched in the body, what can you do. Also, again, 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.080 think about that that primary and secondary stage, the flare 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.800 ups and the disappearance. You have individuals that could go 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.680 into it to be treated for for their symptoms of syphilis, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.320 and low and behold, the symptoms vanish with the treatment, 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.959 not because of the treatment, just because of the timing 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.040 of the treatment. And ultimately, again you're dealing with four 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.080 and a half centuries in which there is no cure 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.399 for this illness. So if someone's trying to sell you 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:45.359 an illness, you're going to try and buy it. That's 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:47.879 just how it goes. And you know, if this disease 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:50.520 is ravaging my body, if you tell me that mercury 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.280 might help, then I'm probably going to try mercury. Sure, 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.080 you're going to try anything at that point, including malaria, 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.280 which was apparently something that was discovered in n by 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:05.480 Julius Wagner Jarig to help halt some of the symptoms 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:10.000 of syphilis, particularly in neurosyphilis, that advanced stage in which 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:14.080 you get psychosis and you get paralysis. And they found 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:19.120 that if you induced a malarial fever in patients, well 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.600 that could help with the actual infection. You also saw 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.280 the use of so called ciphilization treatments. This was where 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:31.240 you would essentially try to inoculate the patient in the 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.960 same way that you would treat them for smallpox. Um, 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.800 this didn't work. Uh, it's submitting yourself to the disease, 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:42.359 right right, Yeah, trying to to build up you know, 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:46.359 bodily immunity doesn't work. Now, I've I've read some mixed 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:50.719 reports of how experiments on rabbits uh in the modern 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:55.600 age have potentially shown some possibility there. But you get 0:20:55.640 --> 0:21:00.200 into a situation where it would take so many applications 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.040 of syphilis and and we're talking about a rabbit and 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.200 it hasn't been studied enough and you would certainly could 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.360 not study it in humans. So so yeah, and then 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:10.720 also why study it when we have penicillin that can 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:14.320 wipe it out? And sometimes it's diagnosed by testing fluid 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.440 from a syphilis sore and looking for the sparrow keet 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.120 via dark field microscopy. The name of that blood test, 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.399 by the way, is the Wasserman blood test. Uh. And 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.000 it was developed in nineteen o six just to get 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.720 everything in the timeline squared away there so as we 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.200 had mentioned syphilis can be treated with antibotics, so we're 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:37.359 talking about penicillin. We're talking about g venzatine, doxycycline, or tetracycline, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.760 and that's for patients who are usually allergic to penicillin. 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.840 In the length of treatment depends on the extent of 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:47.280 the infection and factors such as the person's overall health. 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.120 So let's say you didn't get to it right away 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:51.840 and you kind of get to the second or or 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:55.840 have a secondary phase of it, you would still have 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.639 to deal with any sort of ill effects that you 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.520 might have sustained at that point. All right, So at 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:04.480 this point you might be wondering, what can I do 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:11.119 two decrease my chances of catching syphilis. Well, according to 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.720 the CDC, there basically two things you can do because 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.639 there's no there's no vaccine for syphilis. We have a 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:18.720 cure for syphilis. But then again you get into the 0:22:18.760 --> 0:22:23.560 problem of detecting it, knowing to report it, et cetera. UM. 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.120 And then even once you've treated syphilis, there's no undoing 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.359 any damage that it's done. UM. So number one, be 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:32.080 a part of a long term, mutually monogamous relationship with 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:34.880 a partner who has been tested and has negative STD 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:39.000 test results. And number two, use latex condoms the right 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:42.119 way every time you have sex. Condoms prevent transmission of 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:46.000 syphilis by preventing contact with a sore. Sometimes sores occurring 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.000 areas not covered by a condom. However, in contact with 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.560 these sores can still transmit syphilis. Because again it's about 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.600 it's it's it's it goes through the skin. It's not 0:22:55.680 --> 0:23:01.720 something that travels through the orifice. Now this might surprise you, 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:04.800 but the people who really need to hear this most 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:11.080