The sexually transmitted disease known as " The Ship"

 This winter would be our third with COVID. While it has not entirely disappeared, and the threat of another deadly variant ravaging the world remains possible, masks have slipped off as the virus recedes.

Humanity has been plagued by pandemics. Many remain treatable, although restricted to certain groups of individuals, often lacking in education and healthcare access. This is particularly true of sexually transmitted diseases. Perhaps, for this reason, monkeypox failed to elicit the terror COVID did.

I have been thinking about diseases that have lingered for centuries.

Here is a question: Which disease did the Russians call " The Polish disease" and the Poles call " The German disease?"

If you guessed "syphilis," you are correct!

In my home state of Kerala, India, syphilis is referred to as "kappal" or "ship." The natives believed that sea-faring European traders brought syphilis to the land.

Here is an excerpt from " A brief history of Syphilis" by M Tampa from the Journal of Medicine and life.

From the beginning, syphilis has been a stigmatized, disgraceful disease; each country whose population was affected by the infection blamed the neighboring (and sometimes enemy) countries for the outbreak. So, the inhabitants of today’s Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom named syphilis ‘the French disease, the French named it ‘the Neapolitan disease’, the Russians assigned the name ‘Polish disease’, the Polish called it ‘the German disease’, The Danish, the Portuguese and the inhabitants of Northern Africa named it ‘the Spanish/Castilian disease’ and the Turks coined the term ‘Christian disease’. Moreover, in Northern India, the Muslims blamed the Hindu for the outbreak of the affliction. However, the Hindu blamed the Muslims and in the end everyone blamed the Europeans.

Read the full article here