Scabies, syphilis, scurvy… these old diseases that are resurfacing

2023-05-28 22:58:57

Not content to persist, some diseases that have arisen from the past are even on the increase. www.bridgemanimages.com/Bridgeman Images

DECRYPTION – We thought they belonged to the past. Some old diseases have not yet said their last word, and some are even increasing.

Gout, scabies, syphilis or scurvy… Diseases that have arisen from the past, which many believe to be forgotten. And yet: not content to last, some are even on the increase. Soaring obesity, less fear of AIDS, precariousness, poor diet or mistrust of vaccinations… Paradoxically, it is sometimes modernity that favors their return.

Francis I^isBeethoven, Rimbaud, Maupassant or Stalin… All paid their tribute to “pox”, whose fate was thought to have been sealed by advances in medicine. “But syphilis is back”confirms the P^r Nicolas Dupin, dermatologist and venerologist (Cochin Hospital, Paris). Admittedly, not in the same proportions as in 1860, when it had killed 120,000 French; but while it had almost disappeared in the years 1980-1990, the CeGIDD (Free Centers for Information, Screening and Diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections) reported 3,300 cases in 2021. Figures probably below reality since…

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