There’s nothing quite like syphilis. The sexually transmitted bug that sullied Christopher Columbus’ journey either to the New World or his return back to the Old – we’re still debating this grand chicken-or-egg epidemiological mystery – has deranged the minds of dictators and kings, was once a leading cause of committed hospitalizations to the psych ward, and even sparked fashion trends among members of the European royal courts who sought to cloak its debilitating, tell-tale symptoms (1).
Beyond its rich history as an influence on high society and fashion, syphilis is renowned among physicians as the great con artist of medicine, a sneaky shape-shifter that rarely follows the rulebook, mimicking other ailments and confounding doctors in their search for a diagnosis. As a copycat disease, the “great pretender,” the diagnosis of syphilis relies on a true mastery of all that ails the human body. With this in mind, one of the founding fathers of modern medicine, Sir William Osler, wrote that “he who knows syphilis knows medicine.”
A woman suffering from tertiary syphilis, with erosive lesions of skin and mucous membranes. Image: Dr. John A Fordyce. Click for source.
