"A TRUE FRIEND LIVES IN YOUR HEART LIKE A PART OF YOURSELF"
- Deepak Chopra
I love this definition of a true friend. I have said before that if your life partner is your best friend you have been blessed. I have been blessed. Other than your own life partner, do you have a true friend that you believe is part of you? Did you ever not speak to a true friend in a long time and the next time you speak it is as if you never stopped talking? True friends can finish each others sentences. True friends are individuals you can call no matter what time of the night and you know he/she will be there for you. We all have friends, but how many are 'true friends'? Friends come and go, but true friends last forever. True friends become part of your family. True friends have seen you at the best times and the worst times. Your worst times seem not to be that bad with a true friend by your side.
Christopher's Columbus crew from 1451-1506 contracted a disease... The French call it "The disease of Naples"
John Gunbeck wrote, "...a disease so cruel, so distressing, so appalling that until now nothing so horrifying, nothing more terrible or disgusting has ever been known to earth."
In 1503, Girolamo Fracastro named the disease after a fictitious shepherd who cursed the God Apollo and was afflicted with a new disease by the angered god ...
Al Capone died of this disease...
Leo Tolstoy had this disease as a teenager, but treated it with arsenic...
There are rumors that Henry VIII, Vincent Van Gogh and Adolf Hitler suffered from this disease...
New York City has reported an increase in the number of cases of this disease...
THE DISEASE IS CALLED SYPHILIS.
Syphilis has been called the "Great Imitator" or the " Great Masquerader". There is enormous variation in the symptoms giving rise to the two names above. There are three distinct stages of the disease. The first stage, the chancre stage is the earliest clinical sign of the disease. This is a painless lesion usually on the shaft of the penis, but it doesn't have to be on the shaft. After initial contact, the responsible "bug" Treponema pallidum penetrates the mucous membranes. Within hours the Treponema enters the lymph and blood system to cause a systemic reaction. This is long before any other signs appear. In anywhere from 3 - 90 days, the chancre- the painless ulcer appears. I have seen the chancre occur on the lips and the fingers in addition to the penis shaft. If untreated the chancre will disappear in 4 - 8 weeks leaving a scar. Syphilis can be spread by touching or kissing or having oral, anal or vaginal intercourse a person with an active sore.
The second stage develops in 2 - 12 weeks. I have seen 2 cases where the secondary stage appeared 12 months later. Although this is rare it can occur. Patients will present with headache, sore throat, and mild muscle aches. In the past five years, as the Medical Director in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, I saw more cases of syphilis and other sexually transmitted disease than I have in all my training years. I have three theories. One theory is that gay men have stopped using condoms since they feel that HIV can be treated or 'cured'. Second theory is that a sector of gay men indulge in promiscuous sexual behavior. Third is that many addictions are more common among homosexual versus heterosexual individuals.
I saw an individual with a trunk body rash. He denied any high risk sexual activity. He actually claimed to not have had sex for one year. I gave him antibiotics. I saw the patient four weeks later. He claimed that I had missed the diagnosis of syphilis. How can I even assume he had syphilis if he had been celibate for one year?
After the secondary stage there is a latent or silent period. There are no symptoms of any infection during this phase. In this early latent stage the individual can transmit the disease to others. In the third stage of syphilis the patient is no longer able to transmit the disease to others (4 years after initial contact). Tertiary syphilis afflicts the cardiovascular and nervous systems (especially the brain).
So where are we today? Is syphilis eliminated? The answer is NO. The incidence of syphilis fell from 72 per 100,000 in 1940 to 20 per 100,000 in 1990. In 2004 the incidence was 2.7 per 100,000 . In the last 3 years there has been an increase in the number of reported cases of syphilis. The best way to prevent infection is to advocate sex education and the use of condoms. The history of syphilis (like HIV) indicates discrimination against those with a differing lifestyle. There is a bias that syphilis only occurs in the urban poor, the uneducated, those with little medical care and those with alternate lifestyles. As a society WE NEED TO MOVE ON from such misconceptions.
Education is the key to understanding....
Until tomorrow...
John Gunbeck wrote, "...a disease so cruel, so distressing, so appalling that until now nothing so horrifying, nothing more terrible or disgusting has ever been known to earth."
In 1503, Girolamo Fracastro named the disease after a fictitious shepherd who cursed the God Apollo and was afflicted with a new disease by the angered god ...
Al Capone died of this disease...
Leo Tolstoy had this disease as a teenager, but treated it with arsenic...
There are rumors that Henry VIII, Vincent Van Gogh and Adolf Hitler suffered from this disease...
New York City has reported an increase in the number of cases of this disease...
THE DISEASE IS CALLED SYPHILIS.
Syphilis has been called the "Great Imitator" or the " Great Masquerader". There is enormous variation in the symptoms giving rise to the two names above. There are three distinct stages of the disease. The first stage, the chancre stage is the earliest clinical sign of the disease. This is a painless lesion usually on the shaft of the penis, but it doesn't have to be on the shaft. After initial contact, the responsible "bug" Treponema pallidum penetrates the mucous membranes. Within hours the Treponema enters the lymph and blood system to cause a systemic reaction. This is long before any other signs appear. In anywhere from 3 - 90 days, the chancre- the painless ulcer appears. I have seen the chancre occur on the lips and the fingers in addition to the penis shaft. If untreated the chancre will disappear in 4 - 8 weeks leaving a scar. Syphilis can be spread by touching or kissing or having oral, anal or vaginal intercourse a person with an active sore.
The second stage develops in 2 - 12 weeks. I have seen 2 cases where the secondary stage appeared 12 months later. Although this is rare it can occur. Patients will present with headache, sore throat, and mild muscle aches. In the past five years, as the Medical Director in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, I saw more cases of syphilis and other sexually transmitted disease than I have in all my training years. I have three theories. One theory is that gay men have stopped using condoms since they feel that HIV can be treated or 'cured'. Second theory is that a sector of gay men indulge in promiscuous sexual behavior. Third is that many addictions are more common among homosexual versus heterosexual individuals.
I saw an individual with a trunk body rash. He denied any high risk sexual activity. He actually claimed to not have had sex for one year. I gave him antibiotics. I saw the patient four weeks later. He claimed that I had missed the diagnosis of syphilis. How can I even assume he had syphilis if he had been celibate for one year?
After the secondary stage there is a latent or silent period. There are no symptoms of any infection during this phase. In this early latent stage the individual can transmit the disease to others. In the third stage of syphilis the patient is no longer able to transmit the disease to others (4 years after initial contact). Tertiary syphilis afflicts the cardiovascular and nervous systems (especially the brain).
So where are we today? Is syphilis eliminated? The answer is NO. The incidence of syphilis fell from 72 per 100,000 in 1940 to 20 per 100,000 in 1990. In 2004 the incidence was 2.7 per 100,000 . In the last 3 years there has been an increase in the number of reported cases of syphilis. The best way to prevent infection is to advocate sex education and the use of condoms. The history of syphilis (like HIV) indicates discrimination against those with a differing lifestyle. There is a bias that syphilis only occurs in the urban poor, the uneducated, those with little medical care and those with alternate lifestyles. As a society WE NEED TO MOVE ON from such misconceptions.
Education is the key to understanding....
Until tomorrow...
Photograph: Charlie Chaplin portraying Adolf Hitler in ' The Great Dictator '
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