French letter affair

The name and origin is the least our worries [View this email in your browser]( January 6, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, In yesterday’s newsletter we discussed the idea that, despite knowing decidedly little about the virus that has so changed our lives, many of us are still quick to erroneously fill in the blanks. And that’s before we even get to the variants that are now popping up. With a new South African strain [sparking a new hoopla in the UK]( it got us thinking about the history of another viral infection. The origins of syphilis may be one of the greatest health mysteries in recorded history. Some believe the disease long existed in various forms around the globe but was simply misclassified as other conditions. Some maintain that syphilis was carried from the New World to Europe after Christopher Columbus’s voyages, while others argue the disease has a much longer history in Europe with descriptions of it popping up as early as the late 15th century. In 2015, researchers announced that they had identified signs of congenital syphilis in 14th-century skeletons from Austria, adding new evidence to an age-old debate. The name “syphilis” was coined by the Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro in his 1530 poem titled Syphilis sive morbus gallicus, Latin for Syphilis or the French Disease. The protagonist of the poem is a shepherd named Syphilus, who is presented as the first man to contract the disease, sent by the god Apollo as punishment for one defiance or another. From this character Fracastoro derived a new name for the disease, which he also used in his medical text De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis (On Contagion and Contagious Diseases). Until that time, as Fracastoro notes, syphilis had been called the “French disease” (Italian: mal francese) in Italy, Malta, Poland and Germany, and the “Italian disease” in France. In addition, the Dutch called it the “Spanish disease”, the Russians called it the “Polish disease”, and the Turks called it the “Christian disease” or “Frank (Western European) disease” (frengi). These “local” names were generally reflective of a contemporary political spite between countries and groups, frequently serving as a sort of propaganda. The Protestant Dutch, for example, fought and eventually won a war of independence against their Spanish Habsburg rulers who were Catholic, so referring to syphilis as the “Spanish” disease reinforced a politically useful perception that the Spanish were immoral or deviant. The attributions also suggest the possible routes of the spread of the infection, at least as perceived by host populations. The inherent xenophobia of the terms also stemmed from the disease’s particular epidemiology, often being spread by foreign sailors and soldiers during their frequent sexual contact with local sex workers. One thing’s for sure: nobody wants to take credit for originating a virulent condition. On Monday, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the new variant identified in South Africa is a bigger risk than the highly infectious UK variant. “I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant, and that’s why we took the action that we did to restrict all flights from South Africa,” Hancock told BBC Radio on Monday. Initial estimates from the data suggest that this variant could be about 50% to 70% more transmissible than regular Covid-19 and to muddy the waters further, we aren’t yet exactly sure why it’s more transmissible, although reasonable theories are already being tested. This variant, [now called B.1.1.7]( has “an unusually large number of genetic changes, particularly in the spike protein”, which is how the virus gains entry into our cells. What remains clear is that we are still in a global pandemic and we have to act accordingly. Until tomorrow, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.