Famous People With Stds
Prior to the discovery of penicillin, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), earlier known as venereal diseases, killed and maimed numerous people. Lack of awareness about safe sex, absence of effective medication - all this contributed to the spread of such diseases, including the most dreaded of them all, syphilis. Syphilis spared none, no matter what a person's status in society. Countless famous people over the ages have been attacked by STDs and many have succumbed to them. They were as varied as Adolf Hitler and Ludwig van Beethoven, Al Capone and Vincent Van Gogh.
Many of these people have shaped the history of the world in their times, but have found themselves helpless against the decaying effect of STDs, especially syphilis. Their rich contributions to art, literature, science, philosophy etc. have survived generations of people, but syphilis had beaten all of them hands down. At the other end of the spectrum of famous people with STDs are figures like Al Capone, once Godfather of Chicago's dreaded mafia, Ugandan despot Idi Amin etc. These people lived in different times, and different places. What was common among them was that they all were victims of STDs, namely syphilis.
In fact, the list of famous people with STDs is certain to shock a lot of people given the names it contains. Let us have a look at some of them: Ivan the Terrible, the Tsar of Russia, Nietszsche, Napoleon, John Keats, Winston Churchill, Mozart, Oscar Wilde and King Henry the VIII. One must, however, be reminded that although there was no confirmation of all the above mentioned people having STDs, the symptoms and other factors all point to only one direction - syphilis.
Among other famous people with STDs are poet Antonio Botto, Édouard Manet, King Edward VI, King of England and third Tudor Monarch, Franz Schubert, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Guy de Maupassant, Vladimir Lenin (undisclosed because of image reputations), Winston's father Randolph Churchill, Karen Blixen, Hugo Wolf, and Howard Hughes.
Some more names of famous people with STDs are Fredrick Delius, Gaetano Donizetti, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Scott Joplin, Mikhail Vrubel, and Kostas Karyotakis. Spanish navigator and explorer Martin Alonso, who accompanied Christopher Columbus in 1492 on his popular voyage to “a new world" contracted syphilis and later died of the deadly disease.
The list, far from exhaustive, gives an indication of the reach of STDs, particularly syphilis. Imagine the pitiable condition of the once all-powerful mafia boss Al Capone. Syphilis just made him a ghost of what he was - weak and pitiable, making him die a slow and painful death.
Many of these famous people, particularly those belonging to the field of art and literature, lived bohemian lives and finally paid the price for their indiscretion with their lives. A moment of indiscretion brought doom to the lives of so many famous people, who are still remembered for their either noble or dastardly acts. It was only syphilis which was common between Van Gogh and Idi Amin. Alarmingly, the incidence of syphilis is again showing a rising trend these days. In this age of AIDS, this is a problem we could do without. Unless good condoms are used for safe sex, the danger will always remain.