Sweating Sickness

It also known as English Sweate. It is a virulent disease and unique. Sweating sickness is an febrile, tickborn toxicosis febrile, acute which is characterized mainly by a moist eczema, profuse and visible mucous membranes and hyperemia of the skin. It is essentially a disease of young calves, although adults are also susceptible. Experimentally pigs, goat ,Sheep and a dog have been infected.

The people who are infected with this disease(sweating sickness) died very rapidly. For example, a person could be quite healthy one day, become short of breath one of the symptoms, the next day and be dead on the following day. In other words, the symptoms was dramatic and sudden. within hour, infected human will die. The cause is the most mysterious aspect of the disease. The source of infection is sewage of the time and general dirt.

The fact that the disease seems to have been more virulent among the rich than the poor suggests why it was judged noteworthy in comparison to the other illnesses of the time.

Symptoms

1. The disease starts suddenly with the sense of apprehension. It followed by headache, cold shivers (sometimes it may be very violent), may be you feel giddiness, severe pain in the neck, libs and also on shoulders. Moreover you feel very exhaust. After the cold stage, it last for half-an-hour to three hours, followed the hot and sweating stage.

2. Sense of Delirium, fell intense thirst and rapid pulse.

3. Frequently Pain in the heart.

4. General exhaustion and collapse.

5. Irresistible tendency to sleep. which was thought to be fatal if the patient were permitted to give way to it. One attack did not offer immunity and some people suffered several bouts before succumbing.

Causes

Relapsing Fever: Mostly this disease spread by lice and ticks, moreover it happened during summer. Relapsing fever is marked by a prominent black scab at the site of the tick bite and a subsequent skin rash, whereas contemporaries did not note these relatively obvious symptoms.

Hantavirus: It has also been a consideration in the etiology of this illness.

Clinical features of Hantavirus, outbreaks do not seem to match the progression of the sweating sickness, Hantavirus has only rarely been observed to be transmitted from one human to another, this is believed to be a significant mode of transmission of the sweating sickness.

Although Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome had a very similar clinical picture with descriptions of the sweating sickness. The main course of a Hatavirus attack. It start with a headache and then you feel shortage of breath, in future it happen often. May be there is a need of respirator. During sweating sickness, the people feel breathless and also their lungs fill with certain fluid. There are certain features of the outbreaks of the Hantavirus which do not correspond with sweating sickness. Sweating sickness was transmitted from human to human contact, whereas the Hantavirus is not. Actually these two diseases have similarities but medical science is not sure about it

Cure:

• Effective prevention is to control of tick infestation, removal of ticks,

• Symptomatic treatment,

• Good nursing care are indicated.

• Non-nephrotoxic antibiotics and anti-inflammatory agents are useful to combat secondary infection.

• Immune serum can be used to good effect as a specific treatment.