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Sweating Sickness: An English Disease That Spread To Parts Of Europe As Well
During the fifteenth century, England had begun to reel under a virulent illness that took the form of sweating sickness in which symptoms came to be noticed both suddenly and also very dramatically and which resulted in quick death after just a few hours of having developed the symptoms. What's more, even today there is no clear understanding as to why sweating sickness occurred and the mystery remains unresolved even four centuries and more later.
First Appeared Under The Reign Of Henry VII
The earliest occurrence of sweating sickness was reported during the reign of Henry VII and more particularly to an instance recorded on August 22, 1485 in relation to Battle of Bosworth Field. And, just six days later, London began to suffer from incidences of sweating sickness in which thousands of Londoners died in a short period of just two months. Seven years down the line, sweating sickness then struck Ireland in the year 1492 and the disease even accounted for James Fleming who died of this illness, and another notable feature of sweating sickness was that it seemed not to affect children and infants and also others who survived it for more than 24 hours.
The next recorded instance of sweating sickness took place fifteen years later in the year 1507 where it again attacked England though with less severity after which it took another decade before the illness was noticed once more, and this time it was severe enough and in fact, it even wiped out as many as half of an entire town's population.
However, the severest instance of sweating sickness occurred in the year 1528 when it struck for the fourth time in May of that year and again London was the major center affected; though, it spread from the capital to the rest of England, but mercifully, the North of England was spared. In fact, sweating sickness then even spread from the island and moved across the channel to Hamburg in Germany where it killed many thousands in just seven days, and in December, it affected Switzerland and then moved further north to Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries.
However, in just two weeks, sweating sickness again disappeared and after the year 1528 there have not been any further incidences except for an instance in Switzerland. Thus, this disease that began in England and which touched some of the other countries in Europe continues to defy explanations and even today, no one is quite sure as to why it occurred and why it disappeared.
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