VENEREAL DISEASES
FILMED BY THE (NATIONAL) BUNDES-FILM-HAUPTSTELLE IN VIENNA
FILM OF THE AUSTRIAN ASSOCIATION AGAINST VENEREAL DISEASES
FILMED AT THE VIENNA UNIVERSITY CLINIC
FOR VENEROLOGY AND DERMATOLOGY
(DIRECTED BY PROF. ERNST FINGER)
Honoured guests!
The purpose of the following images is to illustrate
how serious, significant, and widespread venereal diseases are.
As you view these images
of the many, severe, life-threatening symptoms,
please keep in mind that venereal diseases are:
1. Preventable.
Their spread is largely due to ignorance,
carelessness and lack of self-control.
They can be prevented
through means and measures that doctors are well aware of.
2. Venereal diseases are curable.
All of the severe symptoms that follow
could have been prevented with timely, adequate treatment.
Gonorrhea (The clap).
PART 1.
The pathogens of gonorrhea are gonococci.
After infection, they cause an often abundant discharge.
The sampling, staining
and microscopic examination of the discharge.
Gonococci.
Gonorrhea patients have cloudy urine.
Urine of a healthy person - Urine of a gonorrhea patient +
Gonorrhea can cause painful inflammation of the epididymis.
Bilateral inflammation can lead to sterility.
In 75% of all childless couples, gonorrhea is the cause of sterility.
Section of a spermatic cord in a healthy man.
Cause of infertility. First, in men.
In gonorrhea patients,
testicle inflammation obstructs the vas deferens.
Second, in women.
The impregnation process in a healthy woman.
In a woman with gonorrhea,
the Fallopian tube is swollen, hence blocked.
When gonococci invade joints,
painful inflammations and swellings ensue.
Pathogens transmitted to the eyes cause severe inflammation.
Gonorrheal ophtalmia neonatorum.
A large percentage of blindness results from gonorrheal ophtalmia.
Instilling a drop of 1% silver nitrate solution
into the eyes of every newborn
could have prevented these cases of blindness.
Syphilis (Lues).
The sampling and microscopic examination of spirochete-laden discharge.
The pathogen of syphilis is Spirochaeta pallida.
Infection usually occurs through sexual intercourse.
Infection can also happen elsewhere on the body.
Infections on the upper lip, chin and tongue.
About 8 weeks after infection, a break out appears
in the form of spots or papules (secondary stage).
Patients with an eruption of spots.
Patients with an eruption of nodules.
One or several weeping ulcers appear on or around genital organs.
Whitish spots the size of a coin on the neck and throat.
The scalp shows patchy hair loss.
Syphilitic iritis.
The tertiary stage can set in at the end of the 3rd year,
but also after 10 years or more,
after a long period of seemingly good health.
All organs of the human body can be affected
at the tertiary stage.
Painless nodules resembling boils appear on the skin.
They turn into well-defined round or kidney-shaped ulcers.
Syphilitic nodules.
Gums
(as these characteristic tertiary stage ulcers are called)
can also appear on the palate.
Forehead ulcer with exposure of the bone.
The bones of a tertiary stage syphilitic patient
display severe changes, disintegration or thickening.
PART 2.
Internal organs, particularly the brain, heart and large arteries,
display life-threatening modifications.
Healthy brain.
Diseased brain.
Cerebral syphilis results in:
Recovery: 22%
Death: 19% Disability: 59%
Healthy heart.
Diseased heart with thickening of the septum.
Late syphilis symptoms include:
progressive general paralysis (cerebral softening),
tabes dorsalis.
Many mental patients living in insane asylums
suffer diverse delusions.
Characteristic gait of a patient with tabes.
He flings his feet forward.
Syphilis can be passed on from parents to their offspring
for whom it often has dire consequences.
Infant mortality.
Children with healthy parents: 3.8% stillborn.
Death within the first year: 47.2% Survival: 49%
Of 1,700 pregnancies
in marriages where one partner has syphilis
(usually the man).
Miscarriages or stillborn: 34%.
Death within the first year: 56%. Survival: 10%.
Comparison of both statistics. Stillborn:
Death within the first year:
Survival:
Even newborns can present syphilitic symptoms.
Lesions in the cornea in children and juveniles.
18-year-old idiotic patient with arrested development.
If unattended, syphilitic ulcers can lead to severe damage.
(20-year-old man.)
To detect syphilis,
a blood test is done using Wassermann's technique.
Taking of a blood sample.
The Wassermann test uses guinea pig serum
Processing the blood in the laboratory.
The following statistics show how widespread venereal diseases are.
Of 100 deaths, 21 are due to tuberculosis,
and on average, as many to syphilis.
A few statistics:
Before the war, typhus cost Prussia 8 million mark
and syphilis, 150 million.
Distribution by occupation.
In Berlin, venereal diseases are contracted annually:
by 5% of soldiers,
8% of workers,
16% of merchants,
25% of students,
30% of waitresses.
Percentage of students contracting a venereal disease annually:
Prevalence of venereal disease at the end of school:
Prevalence of venereal disease in the army.
Of 1,000 soldiers, number of men contracting a venereal disease annually.
In Prussia: 18.5,
in Bavaria: 20.5,
in France: 27.3,
in Belgium: 28.3,
in the Netherlands: 31,
in Denmark: 34.8,
in Russia: 42.1,
in Austria-Hungary: 61.6,
in Spain: 63.4,
in Italy: 89.7,
in England: 93.3.
Prevalence of syphilis in the English army.
Number of syphilitics per 1,000 men.
On national territory: 46.
Abroad. In Malta: 165.
In Gibraltar: 183.
In Ceylon: 270.
In China: 668!
In Copenhagen, for every 100 men marrying at 30,
there have been 200 gonorrhea and 20 syphilis infections.
The swift spread of venereal diseases is caused by promiscuity,
i.e., when a man has intercourse with several women in a short time
or a woman with several men.
Let us imagine 6 men,
one of which has a contagious venereal disease.
These men have intercourse with 6 women,
among which only one also has a venereal disease.
As a result, one man and one woman are newly infected.
The situation stays the same as long as no one has a new partner.
But the effect of each person changing partners is frightful.
As a result, 4 more people, i.e., half of the healthy ones,
are newly infected.
If each person changes partners again or goes back to their first partner,
then the last 4 healthy ones become diseased too!
In Vienna, of 200 people newly infected with a venereal disease,
67 are between 15 and 24 years old.
19% are between 25 and 30 years old. 14% are over 30.
In Germany, 574 (women) cases.
Here is the distribution of venereal diseases by age,
between 15 and 25 years old:
Venereal diseases are curable.
The sooner they are treated, the more certain they are to be cured.
THE END
Subtitles: Ariane Fénart & Élisabeth Fuchs