A wave of Victorian diseases that had been virtually wiped out are making a comeback – including killer STD syphilis.
Experts say falling childhood vaccination rates, changes in behaviour and eating habits and climate change have created a perfect storm for eliminated illnesses to return.
Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics meaning one of the most transformational medicines of the past 100 years is now under threat, according to news website Politico.
READ MORE: Olivia Pratt-Korbel murder trial witness attacked at home by masked knifeman
One of the strangest conditions to return in Britain is syphilis – a sexually transmitted bacterial disease that can be treated with penicillin if caught early.
If not it can progress from a painless sore to a rash, fever and fatigue then lay dormant in the body foe decades before damaging organs resulting in death.
It claimed the lives of gangster Al Capone, ragtime composer Scott Joplin and artists Toulouse-Lautrec and Manet – and infected Henry VIII, Napoleon and Adolf Hitler.
In the late 18th Century one in five Londoners had contracted it by their mid-30s.
Now the UK's Health Security Agency is seeing massive spikes again.
The number of cases last year (2022) – 8,692 – was the largest since 1948.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control cases across the EU are on an up – particularly in Malta and Ireland.
WW3 fears as Russia's best pal starts running military drills with Wagner on NATO border
"Casual sexual encounters are easier than ever, with ubiquitous dating apps and the rise of chemsex,'' Politico states.
"But it’s not just riskier behaviours that have driven the increase. “Cuts to sexual health services — for example £1billion slashed in England — are also thought to be to blame for the rise.''
Measles has also returned to the UK.
One of the most contagious human diseases it used to arrive in epidemics every two to three years causing more than two million deaths.
But that changed when John Franklin Enders developed a vaccine first licensed for use in 1963.
Dive-bombing seagull left woman with blood dripping down her face – 'I'd been pecked'
Because measles is so infectious immunity in communities needs to reach 95% to stop the disease spreading.
That figure is not being achieved.
Just two months into 2023 there were already 900 cases of measles across Europe – more than the total last year (2022).
Last month the Health Security Agency said London is poised for tens of thousands of cases due to lower levels of vaccination over several years which was compounded by the pandemic.
Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said UK data painted a `harrowing picture', adding: "We must not underestimate the seriousness of this message.''
Sick predator with foot fetish preyed on dozens of victims starting when he was just 14
Another disease coming back is gout – a painful type of arthritis where small crystals form around the joints.
Cases are increasing across the western world as obesity rates soar.
Severe bacterial skin disease leprosy has surfaced in Florida, US, where the number of reported cases have doubled in the last decade.
Medics blame unhealthy lifestyles and poor management of the condition.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.
Source: Read Full Article