The Sleeping Sickness Epidemic (1919-1930)
Morbid12 Tammi

The Sleeping Sickness Epidemic (1919-1930)

In late 1916, while treating a group of patients at his psychiatric clinic at the University of Vienna, Dr. Constantin von Economo began noticing the appearance of strange symptoms that he could not account for. At the same time, in France, Rene Cruchet began noticing similarly strange and unexpected symptoms in his patients. Though the two men had never met and knew nothing of one another’s patients, they would come to learn they were both witnessing the emergence of a new mysterious disease that would soon affect millions of people around the world.

The illnesses documented by von Economo and Cruchet would eventually come to be know as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, a strange condition that caused profound lethargy, hypersomnia, and a wide range of other frightening symptoms. Between 1919 and the early 1930s, millions of people all around the world contracted the illness, with nearly half of all cases resulting in death, and many more suffering long-term effects; yet a cause of the illness has never been established and the terrifying epidemic appears to have faded from memory not long after the disease itself ostensibly disappeared.

References

Brook, Harry Ellington. 1921. "Care of the body." Los Angeles Times, March 6: 18.

Crosby, Molly Caldwell. 2011. Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries. New York, NY: Penguin Publishing Group.

Hassler, Dr. William. 1919. "No sleeping sickness in S.F." San Francisco Examiner, March 10: 1.

Hoffman, Leslie A., and Joel A. Vilensky. 2017. "Encephalitis lethargica: 100 years after the epidemic." Brain: A Journal of Neurology 2246-2251.

Montreal Star. 1920. "Sleeping sickness puzzling doctors." Montreal Star, January 15: 3.

New York Times. 1936. "Awakens from sleep continuing 440 days." New York Times, June 14: 13.

R.R. Dourmashkin, MD. 1997. "What caused the 1918-30 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica?" Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 515-520.

Sacks, Oliver. 1973. Awakenings. New York, NY: Vintage.

San Francisco Examiner. 1919. "New sleeping sickness hits S.F. residents." San Francisco Examiner, March 14: 1.

—. 1921. "Ten succumb to sleeping sickness." San Francisco Examiner, August 18: 13.

Western Morning News. 1919. "Notices." Western Morning News, January 1: 1.

Williams, David Bruce. 2020. "Encephalitis Lethargica: The Challenge of Structure and Function in Neuropsychiatry." Archives of Medicine and Health Sciences 255-262.

Wright, Oliver. 2002. "His life passed in a trance but his death may solve medical." The Times, December 14.

Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)

Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)

Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash Kelley

Listener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra Lally

Listener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025)


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(870)

Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt

Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt

After Lorenna Bobbitt’s husband John sexually assaulted her at their home in Virginia in the summer of 1993, she retaliated by waiting until he was asleep, she decided to fight back. Following the att...

27 Heinä 0s

George Hassell: The Family Axeman

George Hassell: The Family Axeman

On the evening of December 24, 1926, a farmer in Farwell, Texas, called the sheriff to report that his neighbor, George Hassell, had been acting very strangely in recent days and he had been telling c...

23 Heinä 0s

Phantom Stalkers: The Halifax Slasher and The Hammersmith Ghost

Phantom Stalkers: The Halifax Slasher and The Hammersmith Ghost

In eighteenth and nineteenth century England, two phantom stalkers terrorized the public and captured the collective imagination to the point of violence. However, violent outcomes and legal consequen...

20 Heinä 54min

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 4)

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 4)

In the summer of 1982, it became obvious that a serial killer was operating in the Tacoma area and dumping his victims in the waters of the Green River. In time, The Green River Killer, as the press s...

16 Heinä 1h 41min

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 3)

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 3)

In the summer of 1982, it became obvious that a serial killer was operating in the Tacoma area and dumping his victims in the waters of the Green River. In time, The Green River Killer, as the press s...

13 Heinä 1h 14min

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 2)

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 2)

In the summer of 1982, it became obvious that a serial killer was operating in the Tacoma area and dumping his victims in the waters of the Green River. In time, The Green River Killer, as the press s...

9 Heinä 1h 10min

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 1)

The Green River Killer - Gary Ridgway (Part 1)

In the summer of 1982, it became obvious that a serial killer was operating in the Tacoma area and dumping his victims in the waters of the Green River. In time, The Green River Killer, as the press s...

6 Heinä 52min

Blanche Taylor Moore, The Oldest Woman on Death Row (Part 2)

Blanche Taylor Moore, The Oldest Woman on Death Row (Part 2)

When the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation and Blanche was charged with the attempted murder, the arrest came as a shock to those who knew her. How was it possible t...

2 Heinä 1h 7min

Suosittua kategoriassa Komedia

nikotellen
anni-jaajo
antin-matka
olipa-kerran-otsikko
tuplakaak
ihan-oikeesti
antin-palautepalvelu
hupiklubi
rss-saarinen-shoy
antin-elokuvakerho
puurojengi
everypodi
rss-kaheli
trippileiri
ela-viitti
rss-ruokacast
rss-kuukka-vehvilainen-hartlin
rss-joko-saa-luovuttaa
rss-sami-jorma
rss-ask-aiti