Endemic syphilis in Bosnia: clinical and epidemiological observations on a successful mass-treatment campaign

Overview

Success in the prevention and control of any disease depends on a knowledge of its natural history. It is not sufficient to study the course of the disease and its behaviour in the individual; the investigations must be carried out among the affected population as a whole, and particularly into their environment. The characteristics, habits, and customs of man in his physical, mental, social, and economic surroundings must be considered if the underlying causes of mass disease are to be understood. With communicable diseases, the relationship between host and environment, as well as between parasite and host, must be defined so that epidemiology becomes a broad method by which the natural history of the disease is elucidated, leading to a better understanding of the nature, sources, means of spread, and eventual control of the disease.

The present paper is an attempt to study the natural history of syphilis in Bosnia in this broader sense.