Syphilis in Uganda: (the history, clinical features and cellular immunity

Abstract

The history of syphilis in Uganda, the clinical patterns, and the cellular immune mechanisms among the indigenous subjects with syphilis have been studied. Concerning the history it was shown and discussed that the disease was unknown in this country until the arrival of the Arab Slave Traders in 1848. After 1880 the disease rampaged the country “in epidemic fashion” and necessitated the setting up of the anti-venereal disease campaign that has lived until today and which underlined the foundation of Medical Services and higher medical education in this country. The predisposing factors for the so called syphilis epidemic included: (a) the announcement by Kabaka that venereal diseases were virtuous and every man had to acquire to remain a man, and (b) the religious wars between different religious factions. Of the clinical pattern, it was deducted both from the historical review and from the study that lesions of syphilis amongst the indigenous population are severe and exuberant in the early stages of the disease and somehow puzzling in the late stages.