A recent study has demonstrated that physical distancing measures resulted in a significant increase in reported cases of dengue in Thailand but unchanged rates in Malaysia and Singapore.
Dengue is transmitted to humans through the bite of certain species of Aedes mosquitos that carry one of the virus’s four serotypes: dengue viruses 1–4. These mosquitos mostly inhabit subtropical and tropical places worldwide, including some hot, humid parts of the United States.
Globally, dengue is commonplace in more than 100 countries, with 40% of the world’s population living in at-risk areas. Outbreaks of the disease are a significant health problem in the Caribbean, Africa, the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East. Approximately 400 million individuals worldwide contract dengue each year. About 1 in 4 people develop a resulting illness, with 22,000 individuals dying from severe disease anually.
STENDHAL SYNDROME: CAN THE BEAUTY OF ART MAKE US ILL?
What if you were so overwhelmed by the beauty of a work of art that it made you physically and mentally unwell? Some claim that this is a real possibility, and it has a name: the Stendhal syndrome.
Only about 2 years ago, international press headlines tooted that a man had experienced a heart attack while admiring the famous painting by the Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, “The Birth of Venus,” which is housed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
The implication behind the headlines was not that the event had been a coincidence but, in fact, that the artwork’s staggering beauty had caused the heart attack.
Why would anyone suggest this, and is such a phenomenon even possible?
Although it may seem bizarre, there is a fairly long history behind the notion that art can be so overwhelming as to cause physical illness.
This phenomenon is now referred to as the Stendhal syndrome, a term coined by an Italian psychiatrist in 1989. Anecdotes describing the formidable effect of great artworks on the human psyche, however, date back to at least the 19th century.
In this Curiosities of Medical History feature, we look at how this syndrome is defined, what its alleged symptoms are, what role it plays in cultural history, and, of course, whether or not it is a real medical phenomenon. An infusion of immune cells from people who have recovered from Covid-19 could shield those with compromised immune systems from the infection responsible for the disease, a lab-based study of cellular cultures suggests.
