[Diphtheria and Renaissance Spanish physicians]. / La difteria y los médicos españoles del renacimiento.

Along the history of medicine, diphtheria has been the cause of many deadly epidemics. Up to the incorporation of microbiology in medicine and the definition of diphtheria provided by Bretonneau in 1826, this disease was studied with all types of sore throut into the galenic system. Spanish physicians in Renaissance started the way to its systematisation, taking it off the rest of sore throat types, with other laryngeal diseases, as it was known later as "croup", giving it the name of "garrotillo". They were the first to describe some important questions about this disease, as the specificity of the diphtheric pseudomembranes, the ineffective potential of salivary drops and the palsy of the soft palate.

La difteria y los médicos españoles del renacimiento / Diphtheria and renaissance Spanish doctors

A lo largo de la historia de la medicina, la difteria ha sido la causa de muchas epidemias mortíferas. Hasta la incorporación de la microbiología a la medicina y la definición de difteria hecha por Bretonneau en 1826, esta patología fue estudiada junto a otras anginas dentro del galenismo. Los médicos españoles del Renacimiento iniciaron el camino de sistematización de la difteria, separándola del resto de anginas junto con otras afecciones laríngeas, en lo que siglos más tarde sería definido como "crup", dándole el nombre de "garrotillo". Asimismo fueron los primeros en describir aspectos importantes de esta enfermedad, como la especificidad de las pseudomembranas diftéricas, la contagiosidad por los fómites o la parálisis del paladar blando (AU)

Along the history of medicine, diphtheria has been the cause of many deadly epidemics. Up to the incorporation of microbiology in medicine and the definition of diphtheria provided by Bretonneau in 1826, this disease was studied with all types of sore throut into the galenic system. Spanish physicians in Renaissance started the way to its systematisation, taking it off the rest of sore throat types, with other laryngeal diseases, as it was known later as «croup», giving it the name of «garrotillo». They were the first to describe some important questions about this disease, as the specificity of the diphtheric pseudomembranes, the ineffective potential of salivary drops and the palsy of the soft palate (AU)