HOw were STD's treated in the past before antibiotics?

Question

Just a random thought..had to ask.

I meant before antibiotics were invented

Answer 1

There were no cures or effective treatments for STDs before antibiotics. If you managed to get something, you had to live with it until it eventually contributed to your death.

Randolph Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill's father, got the clap after a one-night stand when he was in University. He went crazy when he was older, causing two wars in Africa.

The first and second Boer wars started primarily because Randolph Churchill was insane from syphilis and went around South Africa on a tour insulting everyone. He requested that the British Army come in and civilize the brutes he encountered. The diamond company De Beers had something to do with it too, trying to take diamond mines from Dutch farmers. Since Randolph was considered credible, people in England listened to him. They didn't know that we was crazy from syphilis. His doctor figured that a vacation in Africa would help his disease. They just didn't know any better at the time.

One major thing to consider is, they probably didn't have the technology to identify disease causing bacteria. If you don't know what it is, you really can't treat it. Syphilis, for example, has been identifiable for hundreds of years by symptoms, not microbiology. Asthma used to be known by symptoms, but there was very little that could be done about it until at least the 1930's.

Modern medicine has only been around for about sixty or seventy years. Before that, people used all sorts of things that don't work in an attempt for treatment. It was fashionable for women in the early 1900's to about 1920 to take opium for fun. Smoking and drinking was a man's activity. Getting stoned out of your tree on morphine was what socially acceptable women did. It was in 1936 when the Food and Drug Administration was created. Their purpose was to regulate medications and dosages. Up to that point, you might take a drug on different occasions and the strength of the drug would be different each time.

I'm a Respiratory Therapist. My instructors in college used to tell stories about the dark ages of respiratory care. That was in the 1970's. Even with all the knowledge humanity had at the time, there were treatments commonly given that would not do anything for the disease state that was being treated. People with asthma might still have been taking epinephrine (very dangerous) breathing treatments. The most common breathing medication, Albuterol, came out of that darkness and revolutionized respiratory care. It became a lot safer to be asthmatic. Other new drugs and equipment basically changed the way that respiratory care was done. By the 1980's, it was like night and day.

Answer 2

Yes, if proper dosage, length of treatment, and correct type of antibiotic are taken. Would be better to get tested though which would determine type of STD if any and type of antibiotic to effectively treat. If you do decide to get tested after taking antibiotics it might interfere with diagnosis. Antibiotics will interfere with urinalysis and possibly blood testing. Could possibly result in false negative. Wait a few days after taking antibiotics to get tested if you decide to do.

Answer 3

they used arsenic, lead, all sorts of herbal potions. none of which were useful. they also bled almost everyone for almost every thing. the school of thought was to bleed out the illness. more often than not the patient was bled to death by well meaning ignorance. most recovered in spite of the medical practices of the day.

Answer 4

Along with what Debbie said, mercury was used also for syphilis. Sometimes the cure was worse then the disease.