Ep. 14: “The Physician Who Knows Syphilis Knows Medicine!”

In the next installment of “Interesting Stories in the History of Diagnostics”, Mickey Urdea is catching you up on syphilis, the evolution of its symptoms and treatment over seven centuries, and the still hotly-debated subject of whether “the great pox” was originally an Old World or a New World disease! After all, the first recorded European case of “the great imitator” took place in 1495, right after the beginning of the so-called Columbian Exchange, but contemporaneous accounts vary, which makes for a particularly curious diagnostic puzzle. Come get the inside scoop on the infection that plagued so many throughout history, from Al Capone to Mozart - syphilis!