Was St. Paul's Bay Disease Endemic Syphilis?

Abstract

There is a definite lack of information on treponemal infections in Canada. This thesis attempts to add to the knowledge on treponemal infections from studying outbreaks of the disease from smaller geographic regions of Canada. The purpose of this thesis is to study an alleged outbreak of syphilis, known as St. Paul's Bay Disease (SPBD) and to learn as much as possible about this disease, including its clinical and epidemiological characteristics, diagnosis and origins. This thesis provides evidence to support the contention that this 18th century outbreak of SPBD was not venereal syphilis, but rather endemic syphilis. The findings of this study were drawn from multiple lines of qualitative and quantitative evidence. The descriptions of SPBD by the medical practitioners of that time period reflect a high degree of similarity between SPBD and endemic syphilis. These descriptions contain information on the symptoms, method of treatment, method of transmission and diagnosis of SPBD. Furthermore, when SPBD was compared to the Sibbens of Scotland (a confirmed outbreak of endemic syphilis) they were found to be almost indistinguishable. Lastly, the distribution and prevalence of SPBD among the affected populations were found to be more characteristic of endemic syphilis. It is suggested that future research be carried out in three major areas: the ethnohistory of the various towns in Lower Canada, the origins of SPBD, and lastly, why the disease 'suddenly' disappeared. All of which will bring us one step closer to both understanding this outbreak and the history of treponemal infections in general.