Off The Record
A Woman Whose Legs ‘Felt Like Burning’ Finds Out She Has An Old Disease Called “Holy Fire”
A medieval plague-causing illness caused a woman to lose a bodily part.
She checked herself into an outpatient clinic two days after the 24-year-old started feeling intense scorching pains that started in the center of both of her legs and went all the way down to her toes.
When the physicians examined her, they saw that she was clearly having trouble walking and that her feet had turned discolored. After more investigation, they discovered that her legs were cool, even though she had complained that they were burning, and they were unable to detect any pulse emanating from the dorsalis pedis and popliteal arteries.
Her arteries had narrowed, according to a CT (computed tomography) scan. The discomfort was significantly reduced after taking a basic blood thinner medication, and her legs started to warm up as the blood passed through them.
But one of her toes developed gangrene, necessitating its amputation.
And what was the old ‘holy fire’ illness that she was given?
This condition, known as ergotism, is brought on by eating egot, a naturally occurring fungus that grows on wheat.
People in the Middle Ages believed that ergot poisoning was connected to demons or demonic possession of humans since it produced convulsions, hallucinations, and gangrene.
A paper titled “One holy man, one eponym, three distinct diseases” was published by the National Library of Medicine. The history of St. Anthony’s fire is discussed in “Revisited.”
“The first mention to a gangrenous ergotism plague in Europe appeared in the year 857, in Germany. Several other records of epidemics then emerged in France, Germany and Scandinavia,” it explains.
“Overall, as many as 83 ergotism epidemics have been reported in various parts of Europe from 945 AD onwards, and this list is certainly incomplete.”
“The German physician Wendelin Thelius, who described an epidemic developed in the year 1596 in the Kingdom of Hesse, was the very first to identify ergotism as the underlying cause.”
Measures to control the plague were first implemented in 1778, but it wasn’t until 1676 that the ergot fungus Claviceps purpurea was identified as the cause of infected rye.
The research stated that “French physician Tessier observed a huge epidemic in the year 1778 in Sologne (France), during which more than 8000 people died, and was hence persuaded to recommend drainage of fields, compulsory cleaning of grain and replacement of infected grain with potatoes.”
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