What are some STDs that cause respiratory symptoms?

Question

This one is for a story I'm writing. I'm looking for any STD that shreds lungs, pretty much. If it can be a long, drawn out process (or at least one that can lie dormant for a while) that would be great. Husband dies in a close proximity to wife, tuberculosis is assumed. Three years later, the daughter and her spouse are admitted to the hospital for bloody pleural effusion. The story ends with the daughter being discovered to have been molested by her father shortly before his death. Only problem is that as far as I know, there are no STDs that actually do this. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Sadly, you're probably going to have to make up some new disease... or really stretch a current one. You might have to replace the pleural effusion with something else. A bloody pleural effusion an even bigger stretch (almost like having the wife give her husband lung cancer).

I think you want something where people cough up blood (to cover for the suspected TB issue), which is also a bit of a stretch to imply VD transmission. It's actually quite difficult. Your best bets for STD transmission are probably Syphilis or Hepatitis B... but those are still quite a stretch for lung disorders. Hep B more for Liver problems. End stage Syphilis does have cardiac impairment, valve problems, regurgitation problems... etc... so you might want to go that route. It takes a quite a bit of time and lack of maintenance to get to end stage or tertiary Syphilis... but hey, if it's a story, you can stretch it. Producers/Directors on TV do it all the time on shows like ER, Grey's Anatomy, et al...

Heart and Lung systems are intertwined, so you could go that route. With cardiac insufficiency, you can have fluid back-up in the lungs. Usually pulmonary edema and the like. I suppose you could stretch it for effusion. If you could stretch it to where the STD attacks the kidneys, you would have better logic for pleural fluid problems.

Good luck. Hope this helps.