Invader, The (1955)

[Music] [Music] [Music] l [Music] for [Music] the the Renaissance was a time of invasions not for a thousand years had there been such upheaval drawings of the period show great Harbors crowded with ships with explorers and their plant not for a thousand years had men from so many countries ideas from so many sources products from such widely scattered places been exchanged yet the world men knew 500 years ago was a relatively tiny section of Europe what lay Beyond [Music] it they feared much yet explorers of the Renaissance set boldly forth to find the secrets of that unknown [Music] world [Music] those who survived these voyages claimed new empires they were brave men cruel men products of a brave and cruel age they conquered the peoples of these strange lands stole treasure and took captives then back home again their ships loaded down with new wealth and the seeds of new crops their minds full of new knowledge and the seeds of new [Music] ideas and with these good things the Invaders also brought home in their bodies the germs of new diseases the Renaissance was a time of warfare with the marching armies diseases spread like [Music] wildfire in the 1490s there appeared a strange new epidemic where it started no one knew each Nation named the disease after its enemy in Italy it was called the Spanish box in France they called it the disease from Naples in England they called it the French disease it marched with every Army it sailed with every ship before long this sickness was known and feared around the globe its invasion was [Music] complete in desperation Kings princes and popes turned to their wise men saying our people are tormented by this sickness I command you go find secure astrologers whose opinions were respected in the Renaissance said this new disease had come upon the Earth in 1484 under some unlucky conjunction of the Stars Scholars searched in vain for accounts of an earlier outbreak Physicians with no wisdom from ancient texts to guide them were forced to learn about this disease by watching their patients so clinical medicine dead since the ancient Greeks was reborn by now hundreds of Physicians were observing and writing about the new disease the most noted perhaps was trasto he combined the medical opinions of the Renaissance in a poem in Latin about a Shepherd boy named syphilis the recently invented printing press made it possible to reproduce such important medical Works in many additions soon Flo's poem was being read in courts and monasteries all over Europe and the new disease acquired a name syphilis now the Physicians could report to their kings syphilis they said was spread mainly through sexual contact in this the Physicians were right for syphilis was spreading from diseased man to woman from the newly infected woman to her next [Music] lover people in The remotest Villages were stricken as the Relentless Chain of Infection moved on from woman to man from husband to wife from mother to children children often born dead or horribly deformed [Music] the Physicians also reported that they had found cures for syphilis in this they were tragically wrong some doctors believed in Mercury savs their patients were rubbed with these savs and seemed to be cured others believed in baths cold or hot their patients took these baths and seemed to be cured still other doctors prescribed a tea brewed from the bark of the GU tree which explorers said the Indians used as a cure patients drank this tea and seemed to be cured all these doctors were fooled their patients were not cured the medical profession was not to know for centuries that the characteristic early rash of syphilis always goes away with or without treatment so patients were sent home again they looked well they felt well even the wisest doctor did not know that deep inside the infected patient's body the Insidious germs of syphilis can live on and 10 even 20 years later destroy his very [Music] brain when he was finally bedridden his doctors called this another kind of sickness they were wrong again crippled blinded demented by cilis we can only guess how many of the blind the maed the insane who have crowded the world's Street since that day have been victims of the Invader [Music] syphilis during the next two centuries people had many strange ideas about syphilis in the theaters it was for a time a source of [Music] comedy in the taverns aox on you was a curse one spoke almost in Gest most men were sure they could tell if a woman had syphilis by looking at her many women thought they had cured the rash with some homemade sad from time to time women thought to be spreading the disease were rounded up and caught it out of town asylums claimed victims who went insane here they were chained away until death in its own time relieved their suffering there was no other [Music] help in other quarters there was a different attitude churchmen warned their congregations this Affliction is a judgment from God the wages of sin is death by the 19th century syphilis was a word never used in polite Victorian society certainly not in the presence of ladies or the children of course there was gossip self-appointed authorities whispered listen my friend about that rash of yours up the street they sell a medicine that'll clear it up in no time and no questions asked newspapers of the time were full of advertisements for sure cures have you tried brute a permanent cure in 3 to 6 days mailed in plain rappers guaranteed to cure primary secondary or tertiary blood poisoning if you have taken Mercury potach or iine and still [Music] have all mailed in plain rappers so in his shame man protected The Invader with secrecy and fear and syphilis continued to claim more victims to claim them by the thousands but the sedate world of the 19th century was changing and changing rapidly these children would see the quiet streets of their youth soon crowded with AC [Music] [Applause] activity [Applause] [Music] still no cure for syphilis in 1876 Dr Herman fil after observing more than 30,000 victims of syphilis in the hospitals of via sent these tragic words echoing through the medical world some think that when a patient has for a time enjoyed immunity from the manifestations of syphilis that he's cured but I tell you gentlemen that if a man contracts syphilis he will die syphilitic and at the day of judgment his ghost will have syphilis in the improving medical schools great teachers like Sir William Osler showed their students how syphilis and its final stages can look like heart trouble rheumatism or a dozen other ailments Ola called syphilis the great imitator still no cure and autopsies confirmed that syphilis was a leading cause of death many scientists were trying to get at the root of the matter to find out what microscopic germ caused syphilis their technology had kept pace with with clinical medicine through the centuries since Jansen used this early microscope in 1600 since laen hook saw gross microbes in 1680 for 300 years men had explored the secrets of the unknown microscopic [Music] World from generation to generation their knowledge grew their ability to identify ify each microscopic creature was increased but the germ of Syphilis is infinitely [Music] small in 195 this pale cork screw shaped spet was revealed as the cause of syphilis Fritz shaen and Eric Hoffman were the first to identify it spurred on by this fundamental Discovery dozens of other scientists were studying the spet of syphilis the finest scientific minds of the day the newest developments in technology were Marshal in the fight against the invader [Music] yet somewhere in our country almost 2 million victims of syphilis still remain unfound untreated in the World At Large there are tens of millions nowhere has cilis been wiped out so the Chain of Infection still moves [Music] on to our generation has been given the knowledge the skill the medicine to destroy perhaps the greatest plague that man has ever known today we can throw the Invader [Music] out bour and others had developed the theory of compliment fixation building on this Theory AUST V waserman in 197 developed the first successful blood test for syphilis with wason's test Physicians could know that a person had syphilis even when the early rash had disappeared this was a great step forward but to diagnose is not to cure at the same time Paul Erich the great bacteriologist was developing a basic theory that would help to fight many kinds of contagious diseases as part of this research ER and his staff set out to find an arsenic compound that would kill germs without harm to test animals more than 1,000 compounds of arsenic were developed and put to the test using using the germ of sleeping sickness on first tests Salan arsenic compound number 66 appeared to show promising results next ER and his assistant sahiro hat tried salvan on syphilis test animals were infected the early sores developed injections of salvan were given and proved safe the early sores disappeared as they always do even without treatment but were the living spyit still hidden in their bodies Wan's blood test would give the answer these diagnostic tests taken repeatedly proved that the rabbits were cured by 199 ER was ready to try salvan on human beings [Music] he had found it a Magic Bullet a cure for Syphilis [Music] a Magic Bullet a cure for Syphilis yet the Invaders victims still walked the streets in ignorance only a few bold doctors dared speak openly of er salvan to ask each other why in this 20th century World tens of millions should still carried The Dread spiry in their bodies to ask why ignorance of its true effect should be almost as common on Fifth Avenue as in the remotest corner of the [Music] globe only a few dared speak and in the bustle of the new century the truth was somehow lost in the next decade a few public clinics were set up where patients received weekly injections of a Salan once a victim overcame his shame and accepted the truth of his condition he had to face at least 18 months of painful and expensive treatment week in week out for 18 months or more to break each Chain of Infection and there were millions of such chains even the most dedicated health workers sometimes grew discouraged for most patients once their early rash had disappeared failed to complete their treatments and years later when syphilis struck again they returned too late for any [Music] cure the quacks the pedlers of of those sure cures who could know their claims were false when the invader's name was only whispered when no newspaper would print the word syphilis when many doctors regarded syphilis as a disease too shameful to treat under its right name how could people know how foolish and pathetic was their hope that cure might come out of a bottle purchased from a fake Indian with a glib tongue shaen and Hoffman bord and wasan ay now Alexander Fleming was at work while experimenting with bacterial cultures in a London Hospital Fleming found that one of his samples had gone moldy the area around this mold was strangely free of germ growth looking further he discovered that a substance produced by the mold was deadly to many forms of bacteria Fleming called it penicillin Fleming wrote his first report in 1928 but no further work was to be done on penicillin for the next 12 years 1935 still no victory in sight still the Invaders victims walked the streets in ignorance doctors were worried about the situation worried and frustrated last year over 60,000 babies were born with CIS and in the United States alone more than a million cilis cases were reported only a small fraction of these cases ever completed treatment this means that we will have to build more hospitals for the Blind and more asylums for the insane but doctor I can't see how building more hospitals and asylums for late syphilitics is getting us anywhere but syphilis isn't something that we can lick in one year maybe not in one generation but until we start telling the people the truth about it in words they can understand and keep on telling them the truth the Situation's going to get worse not better but how to get the truth to how many millions on a subject so forbidden most people had never even heard about syphilis except through whispered stories those who thought themselves infected didn't know where to go didn't know what to do the health of a whole nation was in danger in 1936 the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service launched a campaign of public [Music] education the expected resistance came thick and fast what is the government thinking [Music] about it shouldn't be [Music] allowed people like that ought to suffer who says our town needs it children shouldn't see such things but the Crusade went on we must Break the Chain of [Music] Infection sometimes it was the people who owned or controlled the the media who tried to stop the campaign uh due to circumstances beyond our control the talk on community health problems originally scheduled for this time cannot be heard uh and now by transcription a program of quiet organ re look Charlie I don't object but what are our readers going to think if we print a story like this others were less timid why not give people a chance to make up their own minds led by the survey graphic in July 1936 the popular magazines began publishing informative articles on [Music] syphilis in time leaders from many walks of life began to back the campaign with their encouragement various Community groups brought themselves to discuss the subject at least you know I don't know about this thing I believe we ought to consider this very carefully you know the PTA never has done anything like this before but the PTA has always stood for good help and surely you can't avoid a question like this so the word began to get around it says here everybody ought to get a blood test Industries pioneered in requiring blood tests for their employees States passed laws requiring blood tests before marriage some extended these compulsory tests to expectant mothers so babies might be protected at last the truth about syphilis the most Hush Hush of all diseases was out in the open ready to be fought freely without shame with all available weapons by 1941 the public clinics were crowded warned by the Frank and open campaign diagnosed with blood tests people did come in for treatment but it still took at least 18 weary months salvas San injections to be checked off on a clinic card week after week Millions began taking treatments then grew discouraged by the long ordeal and each unfinished treatment card marked a chain of infections still unbroken could the time for treatment be shortened doctors found that when salvan was dripped directly into a patient veins for several hours daily months of treatment could be given in a few days and people would endure a 5 to 10 day stretch when you couldn't hold them for 18 months so all over the nation special syphilis hospitals were built called rapid treatment centers more people were cured but it was painful and sometimes dangerous could science find a safer cure at Oxford University dror Howard flurry and his associates were looking again at the almost forgotten substance which Alexander Fleming had called penicillin 12 years before bacteriologists chemists Pathologists clinician s this scientific team was testing The Germ killing powers of penicillin on a variety of diseases patients dying of deep-seated infections were treated with Penicillin many recovered completely in a few days and news of the new Wonder drugs spread around the globe immediately Dr John Mahoney and his staff at the US Public Health Service Hospital on Staten Island began a series of experiments on animals would penicillin kill the Spyro of [Music] syphilis how much can be used with safety how many injections are needed to kill every lingering germ methodically the EXP experimental doses are recorded 10,000 units 20,000 units tests and more [Music] tests it looks like good news news promising enough to risk making medicine's only conclusive test volunteers are searched for volunteers with syphilis who could be promised nothing four men came forward [Music] it was good news a fast safe cure for Syphilis this is what man had been searching for for hundreds of years in the rapid treatment centers and hospitals teams of health workers Veterans of the salvas San clinics were trained in the new [Music] techniques the education campaign so successfully launched in 1936 had not been allowed to die for there was a new generation coming along and uninformed people who should be informed the public now accepted Frank publicity on syphilis without [Music] embarrassment theaters showed films on syphilis as part of their regular programs Juke boxes and disc jockeys were enlisted in the [Music] campaign patients turned up for treatment either in response to the education campaign or as a result of routine blood tests still required by state laws but how to find the thousands who didn't even suspect they had it who' had a little rash that had gone away the thousands upon thousands of unsuspecting victims who didn't even know they were infected many of these people people could be traced by contact interviews with patients who'd shown positive blood tests themselves so you see John it's like a chain a Chain of Infection that can go on and on and we got to break that chain and we can with your help well I don't want to get her into trouble but if it's like you say I guess I'd be be doing her a favor so thousands of unsuspecting cases have been found and treated their chains of infection broken children born with syphilis have been found and [Music] treated Millions have been cured since 1936 the number of babies born with syphilis has been reduced hundredfold the number of new cases of syphilis has been reduced tfold it took 400 years to develop a diagnostic test 400 years to find a fast safe cure 400 years of human suffering yet somewhere in our country almost 2 million victims of syphilis still remain unfound untreated in the World At Large there are tens of minutes nowhere has syphilis been wiped out so the Chain of Infection still moves on to our generation has been given the knowledge the skill the medicine to destroy perhaps the greatest plague that man has ever known today we can throw the Invader [Music] out dare we stop fighting now [Music]