Were the English Sweating Sickness and the Picardy Sweat Caused by Hantaviruses?

Viruses via National Library of Medicine ^ | January 2014 | Paul Heyman, Leopold Simons, and Christel Cochez

[SunkenCiv]

Abstract: The English sweating sickness caused five devastating epidemics between 1485 and 1551, England was hit hardest, but on one occasion also mainland Europe, with mortality rates between 30% and 50%. The Picardy sweat emerged about 150 years after the English sweat disappeared, in 1718, in France. It caused 196 localized outbreaks and apparently in its turn disappeared in 1861. Both diseases have been the subject of numerous attempts to define their origin, but so far all efforts were in vain. Although both diseases occurred in different time frames and were geographically not overlapping, a common denominator could be what we know today as hantavirus infections. This review aims to shed light on the characteristics of both diseases from contemporary as well as current knowledge and suggests hantavirus infection as the most likely cause for the English sweating sickness as well as for the Picardy sweat...

The earliest description of hantavirus infection dates back to China, around the year 900 AD. Hantavirus disease was suggested as a possible cause for the 1862–1863 “war nephritis” epidemic during the American Civil War, during which around 14,000 individuals developed a hantavirus disease-like condition [4,5]. An epidemic of trench nephritis during World War I may also have been caused by hantavirus infection [6,7,8]. In his attempts to identify the cause of the disease, Rutherford linked trench fever to voles, to the Sweating Sickness in England and to the Picardy Sweat in France...

[SunkenCiv]

• Roads closed into New Mexico city to mitigate 'uninhibited spread of Covid-19' [05/03/2020]
• Man in China dies from hantavirus, over 1,000 cases reported [03/25/2020]
• Man in China Tests Positive After Dying of Hantavirus That Is Spread by Rodents And Has Fatality Rate Of 36% [03/24/2020]
• Rare Rat Virus Infects 2 People In Wisconsin [01/19/2017]
• New Mexico reports fourth Hantavirus death (Six cases, four deaths) [07/01/2016]
• Yosemite Workers Tested For Hantavirus, Ordered To Keep Quiet [09/27/2012]
• Department of Health Reports Plague Case in Torrance County Man (NM - first case in the US in 2012) [05/31/2012]
• New Mexico boy dies of plague, sister recovering [06/04/2009]
• Plague kills 37-year-old man in Arizona [10/21/2008]
• Hantavirus season kicks off with 4 cases [06/05/2008]
• Hantavirus kills Big Horn County man [04/20/2008]
• A Weed, a Fly, a Mouse and a Chain of Unintended Consequences [04/03/2006]
• Airman at Fort Bliss died of hantavirus [02/28/2006]
• World sees an explosion in new infectious diseases (And it's all our fault!) [05/04/2003]
• BioTerrorism Analysis: Weaponsized Infectious Disease and Emerging Disease [03/16/2003]

[SunkenCiv]

• The 'Sweating Disease' That Swept Across England 500 Years Ago is Still a Medical Mystery: It came in five waves, and haunted Tudor England for 70 years before disappearing | Joel Shurkin | November 25, 2019
• The Dreaded Sweat: the Other Medieval Epidemic: While most people have heard of the Black Death, medieval Europe was also afflicted by a less deadly but more perplexing epidemic: the sweating sickness | Jared Bernard | 15 May 2014
• The Sweating Sickness Returns: Physicians think the medieval sweating sickness might have been hantavirus pulmonary syndrome | Discover Staff | May 31, 1997

[gr8eman]

Rat poop?

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Very interesting read. I'm glad someone keeps track of this stuff. Very thorough.

[kiryandil]

Mouse poop, also.

[Mr Radical]

Very interesting article, thanks!

[Guenevere]

Bttt

[ClearCase_guy]

“This gives me all kinds of ideas.” — Dr. Fauci

[robowombat]

A fascinating topic. The English Sweat which also appeared in Holland and the Hanse cities of North Germany is generally described as an influenza variant that disappeared as the virus strain wore out.

[Rurudyne]

And Biden will provide all the funding the ghouls ask for.

[Tennessee Nana]

We had 4 sports teams at my high school all named for famous men...

One of them was named for Rutherford ...

[Red Badger]

It haunted Tudor England because everybody was sweating about who was gonna lose their head or be burned at the stake next!......................

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. Started reading about it while browsing some genealogical stuff about posh ancestors. It's humbling to think about how I got born as a consequence of historical turmoil like this.

[_longranger81]

The Picardy Sweat?

Sounds like a punk rock dance craze.

[SunkenCiv]

Or maybe a French exercise video craze.

[Joe 6-pack]

"The Picardy Sweat? Sounds like a punk rock dance craze."

More like a Japanese soft drink/energy drink:

[Joe 6-pack]

"The Picardy Sweat? Sounds like a punk rock dance craze."

More like a Japanese soft drink/energy drink:

[Deo volente]

The mysterious sweating sickness killed the wife and children of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s right-hand man. The great English actor Mark Rylance portrayed Cromwell in the PBS series “Wolf Hall”, based on the book.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-mysterious-sweating-sickness-in-hilary-mantels-wolf-hall-trilogy-and-the-private-country-of-illness

[SunkenCiv]

He was sweatin’ pretty good, too, as the hooded guy with the axe walked up.

[Deo volente]

Sweating sickness possibly killed the young Prince Arthur Tudor, son of Henry VII. He was just 15. Next in line for the throne was his brother who became Henry VIII. England might still be Catholic if Arthur had survived, and Anne Boleyn might have lived a long and happy life.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/the-sweating-disease-that-swept-across-england-500-years-ago-is-still-a-isns