The 'Scourge of the Renaissance'. A Short Review About Treponema pallidum infection

摘要

Background: There is not a time in the history when epidemics did not loom large: infectious diseases have always had civilisation and evolution-altering consequences. Throughout history, there have been a number of pandemics: cholera, bubonic plague, influenza, smallpox are some of the most brutal killers in human history. Historical accounts of pandemics clearly demonstrate that war, unhygienic conditions, social and health inequality create conditions for the transmission of infectious diseases, and existing health disparities can contribute to unequal morbidity and mortality. The Renaissance was a period of European cultural, artistic, political and economic "rebirth" following the Middle Ages, but it was also the time when new infectious disease appeared, such as Syphilis. The epidemic spread of Syphilis began between the late 15th century and early 16th century due to the increased migration of peoples across Europe. The rapid spread of venereal syphilis throughout Europe suggests the introduction of a disease into a population that had not previously been exposed. Syphilis is a type of treponematosis, which includes syphilis, bejel, yaws, and pinta, but, while syphilis is venereal disease, the others are nonvenereal. Syphilis was, at the beginning, a disease of great severity due to its novelty, as the population had no time to gain any immunity against this venereal disease.