Naslov
Skrljevo disease: between myth and reality

Autori
Muzur, Amir ; Škrobonja, Ante

Izvornik
Croatian medical journal (0353-9504) 45 (2004); 226-229

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, pregledni rad, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
Skrljevo disease; history of medicine; syphilis

Sažetak
At the end of the 18th century, an epidemic of allegedly unknown disease characterized by inconsistent symptoms broke up in Istria, Croatia. The disease was called Skrljevo disease after the village Skrljevo, near Rijeka, where it first emerged. We critically evaluated archive material, books, and papers on this disease published during the last 200 years. According to these records, the "illness" spread quite rapidly, affecting around 13000 people at its peak around the mid-19th century. Dozens of papers, books, and dissertations were written, trying to elucidate the nature and cause of the "epidemic." By the end of the 19th century, the "disease" had mostly disappeared, but the questions it had raised did not. We believe that this "disease" was not a real epidemic, but actually the rise (and fall) of a "fashionable diagnosis". We recognized certain similarities in ethical and popular aspects between the story of the Skrljevo disease and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Temeljne medicinske znanosti

POVEZANOST RADA