Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,997
English Sweat ...
On August 7, 1485, during the Wars of the Roses for the British throne, the pretender Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII) ...
... lands - coming from Brittany - with a small army at Milford Heaven on the British island ...:
On the same day, a mysterious disease breaks out in the region, which reproduces at breakneck speed and in a pandemic!
The following map shows where the disease occurred at the time ...:
Contemporaries report that the disease began very suddenly in infected persons with feelings of tightness, followed by sometimes very violent chills, dizziness, headache and pain in the neck, shoulders and limbs, accompanied by great exhaustion.
This "cold" stage, which could last from half an hour to three hours, was followed by the stage of heat and sweating.
The often foul-smelling sweat characteristic of the mysterious epidemic broke out suddenly and, as it seemed to those familiar with the disease, for no apparent reason.
With the sweat - or shortly afterwards - a feeling of heat (or fever) occurred, accompanied by headache, delirium, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, racing pulse and palpitations and great thirst.
Palpitations and heartache were common symptoms. No rash of any kind was observed.
In the later stages, there followed either general exhaustion, breakdown and rapid death, or an irresistible drowsiness which to give in was deemed fatal.
Those who survived a seizure were not immune in the future; some people had multiple seizures before dying. There was also frequent nosebleeds.
It was significant that the patients died four to twelve hours after the onset of the disease and that those who survived 24 hours had a good chance of survival.
Anyone who came into contact with sick people usually got sick themselves.
Thousands died from the plague!
Long-term consequences of the disease were frequent attacks of palpitations, sometimes for life, as well as night sweats long after the illness.
The enigmatic disease was called "English Sweat" or "English sweat fever" (Latin: pestis sudorosa or sudor anglicus) - here is a contemporary brochure for doctors in which it is described ...:
Just as puzzlingly as how the disease emerged, it also disappeared again: the last outbreak to date was observed in 1551.
It is still unclear - even after the most modern analysis methods of exhumed bones - what this disease was about.
The speculations about the cause of the "English Sweat" range in viral infections from influenza to hantaviruses, in bacterial diseases leptospirosis ( so called "Weil's disease") as well as pulmonary anthrax are considered.
Due to the temporal connection and the places of the first appearance of the unknown epidemic, it is assumed almost certain that Henry Tudor and his army brought the disease to England...
On August 7, 1485, during the Wars of the Roses for the British throne, the pretender Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII) ...
... lands - coming from Brittany - with a small army at Milford Heaven on the British island ...:
On the same day, a mysterious disease breaks out in the region, which reproduces at breakneck speed and in a pandemic!
The following map shows where the disease occurred at the time ...:
Contemporaries report that the disease began very suddenly in infected persons with feelings of tightness, followed by sometimes very violent chills, dizziness, headache and pain in the neck, shoulders and limbs, accompanied by great exhaustion.
This "cold" stage, which could last from half an hour to three hours, was followed by the stage of heat and sweating.
The often foul-smelling sweat characteristic of the mysterious epidemic broke out suddenly and, as it seemed to those familiar with the disease, for no apparent reason.
With the sweat - or shortly afterwards - a feeling of heat (or fever) occurred, accompanied by headache, delirium, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, racing pulse and palpitations and great thirst.
Palpitations and heartache were common symptoms. No rash of any kind was observed.
In the later stages, there followed either general exhaustion, breakdown and rapid death, or an irresistible drowsiness which to give in was deemed fatal.
Those who survived a seizure were not immune in the future; some people had multiple seizures before dying. There was also frequent nosebleeds.
It was significant that the patients died four to twelve hours after the onset of the disease and that those who survived 24 hours had a good chance of survival.
Anyone who came into contact with sick people usually got sick themselves.
Thousands died from the plague!
Long-term consequences of the disease were frequent attacks of palpitations, sometimes for life, as well as night sweats long after the illness.
The enigmatic disease was called "English Sweat" or "English sweat fever" (Latin: pestis sudorosa or sudor anglicus) - here is a contemporary brochure for doctors in which it is described ...:
Just as puzzlingly as how the disease emerged, it also disappeared again: the last outbreak to date was observed in 1551.
It is still unclear - even after the most modern analysis methods of exhumed bones - what this disease was about.
The speculations about the cause of the "English Sweat" range in viral infections from influenza to hantaviruses, in bacterial diseases leptospirosis ( so called "Weil's disease") as well as pulmonary anthrax are considered.
Due to the temporal connection and the places of the first appearance of the unknown epidemic, it is assumed almost certain that Henry Tudor and his army brought the disease to England...
