Since the COVID-19 pandemic of recent years, most of us now realise that an unknown infection or a new version of a known disease can suddenly appear and in a matter of weeks or months spread right across the planet. It can wipe out millions before treatments or vaccines can be produced. Of course, COVID-19 was not the first such illness to spread around the world. In 1918, just as the First World War was coming to an end, there was an outbreak of what became known as the Spanish Flu. It is said to have killed more people than the Great War which was described at the time as the “war to end all wars.”
And beginning in the fourteenth century, the Black Death made its appearance. Over the next centuries, it came and went but it is thought that it was responsible for killing over one quarter of the people in Europe. It still exists today in one or two parts of the world, but there are vaccines available to protect you. I should know, as I was vaccinated for it before a filming trip to certain African countries back in the 1980s. It worked; I didn’t catch it.
But, the illness I want to discuss is one that appeared some centuries ago and to this day, we do not know what it was. It was called the Sweating Sickness” or the “English Sweats.” It first appeared in England in 1485 and then again in 1508, 1517, 1528 and 1551. However, between the years 1528 to 1529, it spread into Europe infecting the populations of Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Russia.
This was not a mild disease. It reached epidemic proportions and had a high mortality rate. Through the written records of a doctor at the time by the name of John Caius, we have a good idea of the symptoms and prognosis of those infected. He wrote that it began with a headache, giddiness, rigours and prostration. After only one to three hours, the patient would become drenched in their own sweat, indicating a severe fever. Delirium and a racing pulse followed. If the worst was going to happen, you could expect death to come within three to eighteen hours after noticing the first symptoms. That is quite frightening.
However, John Caius also wrote that if you survived for twenty-four hours, you would likely recover. Unfortunately, if you did survive, you did not have any immunity from further infections and it is said that some people survived a number of separate infections. The fact that the onset of symptoms and whether you survived or died was quick, then each outbreak in any one locality lasted no more than a few weeks. That was probably the only silver lining to the cloud.
So, what do we think it was today? As I said earlier, there is no certainty but we do have some clues. John Caius put it down to the unhealthy conditions that people lived in at that time. However, we have some further ideas. The illness only seemed to appear in late spring or summer. This might indicate that it was carried by insects or some other small tick. It also appeared to favour the rich rather than the poor and even stranger, it preferred to attack the young and healthy of the population.
Medical researchers have ruled out influenza and typhus as the culprit. There is an infection called relapsing fever which is carried by insects and ticks and does convey some of the symptoms recorded. So, this is a possibility. It is unusual for such a virulent disease to vanish completely but it can happen. Finally, it has also been suggested that it might have been caused by a hantavirus infection. Let us hope it does not return just to satisfy our curiosity.
John Pullen 