Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: In 1728, the impoverished Flora Price applied to her local parish churchwardens in London for assistance.Charitable support was provided at local parishes to carefully screened applicants.During her interview, she admitted that she suffered from the "pox," the common term for sexually transmitted diseases before physicians clinically distinguished between syphilis and gonorrhea.Instead of entering a hospital, she was sent to a workhouse, an institution created to correct "idleness," which at the time was widely regarded as the root cause of poverty.At the workhouse, she received mercury treatments for her illness.Her male contemporaries, however, were far more likely than indigent females to be admitted to hospitals, which provided bed rest in addition to mercury treatment.Female patients suffering from this "foul disease" did not win the sympathy of churchwardens as easily as male patients did.All poor patients, male and female, had to suffer the indignity of publicly admitting their diagnosis.Meanwhile, wealthy patients could afford private, confidential treatment with minimal, if any, loss to their reputations [1].
Source: The AMA Journal of Ethic
Author: Laura J. McGough
Institutions: Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W25493271