History of syphilis

Shortly after Columbus had arrived in the New World, syphilis erupted in Europe during the waning years of the sixteen century.

The disease made its first appearance in Naples in 1495, near beginning of a series of Italian Wars that engulfed Europe for about a half century.

Initially, the disease was called the ‘disease of Naples’ but it rages with such virulence among the French troops that France was force to give up the campaign.

The term ‘syphilis’ was first deployed by the Veronese humanist and physician Girolamo Fracastoro in a poem Syphilis sive morbus gallicus in 1530.

Two German investigators, Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffman, announced the discovery of the germ of ‘syphilis’ in 1905.

Following the discovery August von Wasserman discovered a blood test for syphilis in 1906. In 1910, Paul Ehrlich identified an arsenical compound called Salvarsan, that was an effective though difficult to use treatment for syphilis.

In 1945, when the new medicine, penicillin, seemed to promise a total cure, syphilis treatment was the focus priority.

French virologist Philipe Ricord in 1837 establish the specificity of the two diseases through a series of experimental inoculations from syphilitic chancre. He also among the first physician to differentiate primary, secondary and tertiary syphilis, the three stages of infection.
History of syphilis