Appearing, is Fear

I find it fascinating how we seem to forget the health issues previous generations struggled against.

The Cincinnati Enquirer 

Monday, Feb. 2, 1925

(I'm looking at you anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.)

As an example, I was confused when I was younger why my maternal grandmother lost her operatic voice after a case of strep throat. She still sang professionally, but couldn't sing opera anymore. It wasn't until it occurred to me that she did not have access to any antibiotics at that time that I finally understood.

Nowadays, when we hear the words "Spotted Fever" we tend to think of  Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a feverish disease caused by hard-shelled ticks. 

But in uncle Charley's day, the words "spotted fever" would cast fear upon a community.

According to the April 30, 2019 online edition of The Lancet, "The high fatality of the meningococcal disease epidemics observed during the 19th century meant that this disease was considered one of those with the worst prognosis, only comparable to the plague and cholera."

Yikes, no wonder the campus was in a panic.

Serum therapy helped, but it wasn't until the 1930s and 1940s when sulfa and antibiotics were developed that the widespread fear diminished. But those only worked on the bacterial versions of meningitis, not the viral. When the meningococcal vaccines began in 1969 there was widespread relief and rejoicing.

Recently however, the abuse of antibiotics has created drug-resistent varieties causing increasing incidents of sepsis. Scientists again are looking into serum-therepy as a treatment.

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