Post by Catsmate on Sept 2, 2019 17:32:49 GMT
Sweating Sickness – The Other Medieval Plague
Sweating sickness, also known as the English sweat, was a mysterious disease that struck (mostly) England the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It was highly contagious and usually killed rapidly, within a day.
The first recorded epidemic was in 1485, while the last occurred in 1551. After this the disease apparently vanished.
The onset of symptoms was sudden, with death often occurring within hours, and the cause remains unknown even today. There is speculation that it was caused by a currently unknown species of hantavirus.
Tens of thousands died, among them Henry VIII's illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy[1] and possibly Henry's only legitimate son Arthur.
Symptoms.
The disease began suddenly, with high fever, painful aches in the upper body and and extremities, and abdominal pain with vomiting. Intense chills were quickly followed by a hot phase involving profuse sweating.
Death came quickly, usually within a few hours, after incapacitating weakness and shortness of breath, finally culminating in chest pain, a racing pulse, and cardiac palpitations. The usual immediate cause of death was heart failure.
Generally if a person survived two days then would live, though perhaps weakened permanently. Surviving did not seem to produce immunity, suggesting a viral cause.
History.
The outbreaks were mostly contained within England, where they occurred during the summers of 1485, 1508, 1517, 1528, and 1551. Then this enigmatic disease vanished. During those summers, physicians struggled madly to understand the disease, as they had struggled with the Black Death a generation earlier.
The first outbreak may be linked to the coup of Henry Tudor[2] coup against Richard III in 1485. The illness is first reported in chronicles of the Battle of Bosworth, when Lord Stanley used it a excuse for withdrawing his army. It may have been brought over from France by the French mercenaries whom Henry VII used in his bid for the English throne; however there were no corresponing outbreaks in France.
The English sweating sickness followed Henry VII’s victorious troops back to London; over fifteen thousand died in forty days.
In general continental Europe was safe, perhaps the disease couldn't pass the channel? Only one outbreak struck the mainland; in 1528 after an outbreak in London killed more than two thousand people, the Sweat spread to Hamburg. And thence, after a thousand or more people died, to other German and Scandinavian cites, including Danzig (3,000 dead) and many again in Lübeck and other cities as the Sweat spread along the Baltic coast into Denmark, Scandinavia, and Russia.
In Hamburg over eleven hundred people (>5% of the population) died within a month.
Cause.
The most likely cause of the Sweat was a form of hantavirus. This virus is usually transmitted by rodents (who show no symptoms) with humans becoming infected by inhaling aerosolised rodent urine or faeces. There is only one known outbreak of hantavirus
transmitting person-to-person, in 1996 in Argentina.
The symptoms of the Sweat are very similar to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which occurs today on a small scale.
One of the triggering events might have been climate change; the Sweat coincided with the beginning of a three century period of cooling climate in Europe.
Other possible outbreaks.
A similar, but usually milder diseased. occurred in northern France between 1718 and 1918 as was known as the Picardy sweat from the region where it was most prevalent. The death rate was lower and the symptoms somewhat different, suggesting a variant strain. How it has survived and whit it didn't spread further are unknown.
The last major outbreak of the Picardy sweat was in 1906, where 6,000 were infected.
Uses.
1. Infect the PCs
A new antagonist for the PCs might be a disease they can't fight in conventional ways. They'll need to either endure it or use advanced medicine[3] to cure themselves. Alternatively an important NPC might be infected.
2. Research
History wants to know what the Sweat was, so go and find out. An ideal missions for St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research. Surviving might be tricky however...
3. Background.
The Sweat is an interesting bit of 'background colour' to add to a scenario, or to delay the progress of the group due to piled-up corpses, paranoia and civil unrest.
4. Biological warfare by Richardians
For a more sinister take, perhaps the disease was deliberately introduced as a biological weapon intended to help Richard III retain the throne of England? Careless time traveller sprays the forces of Henry VII with a 'mild' viral agent, which gets out of hand.
5. Accidental introduction
Or maybe the disease arrived from the future, but accidentally. Maybe one of the PCs unknowingly carried it from twenty second century Mumbai to medieval England. Or perhaps it was an unvaccinated tourist there to watch the Battle of Bosworth.
6. Modern day
Diseases have a nasty habit of recurring. Maybe an archaeologist opens the wrong tomb and rats are infected with a still viable strain of the virus which spreads (plenty of rodents in modern cities). Now the PCs need to find a cure before civil unrest and panic kill more than the virus.
In a Primeval game the disease could have come through a portal in the form of an infected human, or swarm of rats.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
The English Sweat in Lübeck and North Germany, 1529 Covers the continental outbreak in detail
[1] Unless of course he actually became a vampire.
[2] Henry VII after he succeeded.
[3] Significantly more advanced than today. There is no vaccine for hantavirus, no antiviral regime known to be effecive and in general treatment is supportive, i.e. relieve symptoms and let teh patient fight the virus.
Sweating sickness, also known as the English sweat, was a mysterious disease that struck (mostly) England the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It was highly contagious and usually killed rapidly, within a day.
The first recorded epidemic was in 1485, while the last occurred in 1551. After this the disease apparently vanished.
The onset of symptoms was sudden, with death often occurring within hours, and the cause remains unknown even today. There is speculation that it was caused by a currently unknown species of hantavirus.
Tens of thousands died, among them Henry VIII's illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy[1] and possibly Henry's only legitimate son Arthur.
- Curiously Henry's principal advisor, Cardinal Wolsey, survived several attacks of sweating sickness.
Symptoms.
The disease began suddenly, with high fever, painful aches in the upper body and and extremities, and abdominal pain with vomiting. Intense chills were quickly followed by a hot phase involving profuse sweating.
Death came quickly, usually within a few hours, after incapacitating weakness and shortness of breath, finally culminating in chest pain, a racing pulse, and cardiac palpitations. The usual immediate cause of death was heart failure.
Generally if a person survived two days then would live, though perhaps weakened permanently. Surviving did not seem to produce immunity, suggesting a viral cause.
- Interestingly children rarely contracted the disease.
History.
The outbreaks were mostly contained within England, where they occurred during the summers of 1485, 1508, 1517, 1528, and 1551. Then this enigmatic disease vanished. During those summers, physicians struggled madly to understand the disease, as they had struggled with the Black Death a generation earlier.
The first outbreak may be linked to the coup of Henry Tudor[2] coup against Richard III in 1485. The illness is first reported in chronicles of the Battle of Bosworth, when Lord Stanley used it a excuse for withdrawing his army. It may have been brought over from France by the French mercenaries whom Henry VII used in his bid for the English throne; however there were no corresponing outbreaks in France.
The English sweating sickness followed Henry VII’s victorious troops back to London; over fifteen thousand died in forty days.
In general continental Europe was safe, perhaps the disease couldn't pass the channel? Only one outbreak struck the mainland; in 1528 after an outbreak in London killed more than two thousand people, the Sweat spread to Hamburg. And thence, after a thousand or more people died, to other German and Scandinavian cites, including Danzig (3,000 dead) and many again in Lübeck and other cities as the Sweat spread along the Baltic coast into Denmark, Scandinavia, and Russia.
- This outbreak seems relatively mild; the French ambassador to England, Jean Du Bellay, wrote in a letter of 30 June 1528 that 40,000 people had been affected by the disease in London with 2,000 having died.
In Hamburg over eleven hundred people (>5% of the population) died within a month.
Cause.
The most likely cause of the Sweat was a form of hantavirus. This virus is usually transmitted by rodents (who show no symptoms) with humans becoming infected by inhaling aerosolised rodent urine or faeces. There is only one known outbreak of hantavirus
transmitting person-to-person, in 1996 in Argentina.
The symptoms of the Sweat are very similar to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which occurs today on a small scale.
One of the triggering events might have been climate change; the Sweat coincided with the beginning of a three century period of cooling climate in Europe.
Other possible outbreaks.
A similar, but usually milder diseased. occurred in northern France between 1718 and 1918 as was known as the Picardy sweat from the region where it was most prevalent. The death rate was lower and the symptoms somewhat different, suggesting a variant strain. How it has survived and whit it didn't spread further are unknown.
The last major outbreak of the Picardy sweat was in 1906, where 6,000 were infected.
Uses.
1. Infect the PCs
A new antagonist for the PCs might be a disease they can't fight in conventional ways. They'll need to either endure it or use advanced medicine[3] to cure themselves. Alternatively an important NPC might be infected.
2. Research
History wants to know what the Sweat was, so go and find out. An ideal missions for St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research. Surviving might be tricky however...
3. Background.
The Sweat is an interesting bit of 'background colour' to add to a scenario, or to delay the progress of the group due to piled-up corpses, paranoia and civil unrest.
4. Biological warfare by Richardians
For a more sinister take, perhaps the disease was deliberately introduced as a biological weapon intended to help Richard III retain the throne of England? Careless time traveller sprays the forces of Henry VII with a 'mild' viral agent, which gets out of hand.
5. Accidental introduction
Or maybe the disease arrived from the future, but accidentally. Maybe one of the PCs unknowingly carried it from twenty second century Mumbai to medieval England. Or perhaps it was an unvaccinated tourist there to watch the Battle of Bosworth.
6. Modern day
Diseases have a nasty habit of recurring. Maybe an archaeologist opens the wrong tomb and rats are infected with a still viable strain of the virus which spreads (plenty of rodents in modern cities). Now the PCs need to find a cure before civil unrest and panic kill more than the virus.
In a Primeval game the disease could have come through a portal in the form of an infected human, or swarm of rats.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
The English Sweat in Lübeck and North Germany, 1529 Covers the continental outbreak in detail
[1] Unless of course he actually became a vampire.
[2] Henry VII after he succeeded.
[3] Significantly more advanced than today. There is no vaccine for hantavirus, no antiviral regime known to be effecive and in general treatment is supportive, i.e. relieve symptoms and let teh patient fight the virus.