[Kylon]

I know this topic is relatively disgusting, but it's something that needs to be addressed.

Diseases like HIV are usually fatal (except with extreme care using expensive medications), and diseases like Syphillis will progressively get worse, unless treated by a combined use of high powered antibiotics.

The issue I would like to bring up is, that when there are increases in poverty, there will likely be an increase of prostitution, with increased prostitution there is an increased spread of venerial diseases.

Combine this with the fact that treatments for venerial diseases will not be affordable, and so things that might lower the transmission rate (such as condoms, or a generally suppressed infection due to good medical care) will be reduced, further increasing the spread of disease.

Another factor that may increase the spread of diseases, would be the cultural effect of fear, desperation, and hopelessness. If the whole world seems to be falling apart, then risk taking behavior seems less risky, less costly, because your probably not going to survive much longer anyways.

Combined that with worse nutrition which would increase the spread of diseases due to a decreased immune system, and that would worsen the effect.

So what does everybody think about this topic? If you have links to other topics concerning this, they are welcome.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

This is probably not the direction you were thinking the first response would head in... but maybe they'd need to listen to this woman. http://www.drclark.net/ She is an award winning research scientist from Canada who says taht most diseases, like cancer come from a source you can treat.

She says she has evidence that HIV is something taht can be treated. though I can't speak to anything other than there is a very large following of health care stores and consumers up here in Canada who believe (due to personal experience) that she knows what she is talking about.

[Ayoob]

Socially conservative types who walk away from sex before marriage will outcompete others in terms of living long lives. I would imagine that homosexuals who pretend spelunking each others' recta with a penis-probe will probably contract VD at a much higher rate.

[Arsenal]

IF a fast crash scenario happens then I think STD's will spike and the crash. Anyone that has a STD and survives will be severely limited in travel. Most will be working to survive. Yes.. There will still be the spread of STD's but a person with the clap can only spread it locally. Nowadays people travel all over the world which helps STD spread. On the flip side though... Fewer condoms pretty much guarantees the spread down at the local watering hole.

In the long emergency.... All bets are off. People will spread it.

[Plantagenet]

If the crash is slow enough, the PTB will put a special "sex disease carrier" tattoo on everyone who has a sexual disease to protect those who do not. Then, when condoms are no longer available, folks will simply have to check whether their intended has the "sex disease carrier" tattoo to be safe.

[efarmer]

If this wild scenario would come to pass Planty, seeing as
how it is the government, do you think they would treat
it like license plates and offer custom tattooed messages
for an extra fee?

"Pain at the Pump"

"Ying Yang - Sting Stang."

"Funeral Organ - Dirge your urge."

"Big Louie's in da house."

"Run Lucy! Richard Leakey."

"Spurn or burn."

"Unit out of ardor."

"Gynosorus Wrecks."

On second thought, I suppose it would be a bad idea.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('efarmer', 'I')f this wild scenario would come to pass Planty, seeing as
how it is the government, do you think they would treat
it like license plates and offer custom tattooed messages
for an extra fee?

"Pain at the Pump"

"Ying Yang - Sting Stang."

"Funeral Organ - Dirge your urge."

"Big Louie's in da house."

"Run Lucy! Richard Leakey."

"Spurn or burn."

"Unit out of ardor."

"Gynosorus Wrecks."

[blukatzen]

Of course, the best way, as mentioned, is not to be a sex addict or a *working girl*/sex worker.

However, there were many cultures around the world that knew of STD's and had herbal or other cures they knew of. I am not knowledgable about all of them, but I did hear of some. If Cancer can be cured with herbs and herbal meds/salves, it's likely that some STD's can be cured with them.
Mushrooms (Reishii and other medicinal mushrooms) have good means to boost ones immune system, as well as things like colloidal silver.

I have some friends that are working herbalists, I will ask them what they have found in their historical books, and report back. (this is NOT to be touted as *cure* per the FDA disclaimer.)

Blu
PS not to hijack the thread, but I think in the future, I'd be just as antsy of getting tuberculosis as an STD. Probably even more so. I think conditions are ripe in some crowded communities too.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('blukatzen', 'n')ot to hijack the thread, but I think in the future, I'd be just as antsy of getting tuberculosis as an STD. Probably even more so. I think conditions are ripe in some crowded communities too.

[efarmer]

It is a great point that we are not god at the basics of keeping
ourselves from getting sick and spreading it in a myriad of ways
in current much less more primitive living conditions, Plantagenet.
Most folks do not know how and learning by trial and error is a very
unsavory social prospect.

Swabbing privy seats with oxidizing sanitizers like bleach
and giving eating utensils and dishes a sterilizing dunk
goes a very long way for starters, and <gasp> having
personal discipline with exposing your body to possible
vectors would have to come back into vogue.

[Plantagenet]

Good point, efarmer. The STD and kitchen and toilet seat cleanliness issues alone might be enough to make living in isolated pre-planned and organized "doomsteads" preferable to living with masses of refugees in the spontaneous and poorly organized hippie-like communities that will arise in the post-collapse world.

[blukatzen]

Well, here's the reply off of one of my lists I own, called "Hexenkunst", we study folkloric medicines of the Penn-Deitsch, whom I draw some of my ancestry from. I posted your question on my board, and these 2 folks answered me.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')rom what I've gleaned from reading, and talking with experts, is that there weren't really any herbal remedies for STD's in the past. Syphilis, the main killer, didn't make its appearance in Europe until after Columbus's second trip to the New World. Did it originate in America? No, it probably came from Africa, where he picked up a load of slaves to take to his colony. There was a disease in Africa at the time called Yaws, whose symptoms were much like syphilis.

Syphilis spread throughout Europe, killing and disfiguring millions. The herbalists were stymied by this disease, and powerless to cure it. Then along came a miner from Tyrol named Theophratus von Hoenheim, who figured that since Mercury was the God of medicine, salts of mercury should be used to treat this demonic plague, and set himself up as a physician. About half of his patients died, but the other half were cured of syphilis, and the man's reputation spread, and he changed his name to Paracelsus. When the pope at the time contracted this dread disease, he was treated, and cured, by Paracelsus. This gave the church the excuse to go after the herbalists, many of whom were Pagans. In all of the charges against the accused witches, the one they all had in common was "using an herb for medicine."

Mercury salts were used to treat STD's up until the discovery of penicillin, a medication derived from a fungus, hence an "herbal" med? Hope this helps you.
John

[Plantagenet]

Thank you so very much for sharing that wisdom with us, Blu. Its wonderful that you and your colleagues are rediscovering the wisdom of the past, and that the ancient teachings may help us face a diffcult future.

I'm confident now that, at least in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, ancient wisdom lives on.