“No effect is in nature without reason, you intend reason and you need no experience”. (Leonardo da Vinci[1])
(Human Papillomavirus) Some years ago I was for a short stay at Madonna di Campiglio, on the Dolomites. My ski instructor, during a lesson, suggested me a restaurant out of the town and I made a reservation for the same evening. It had been snowing nearly nonstop for some days, snow was really so much, the chalet of the restaurant very suggestive and all the atmosphere was magic.
Once at table while looking over the menu I saw some dishes based on venison and the thing made me curious. I wondered vhere that animal might come from since I didn’t think there were such a quantity of deers on the Dolomites as to be hunted and served at table. I thought it were imported meat and to know something more I called the landlord. To my great surprise he told me in those places deers were so many as to make some periodic hunting trips necessary to reduce their number; “or else?” – I asked more and more curious. Very proud of my interest and his extra-gastronomical preparation the landlord explained to me that when deers become too numerous they fall ill and die.
Now my curiosity was on top and being very excited, I asked why those wonderful animals fell ill; the answer was a flash for me: subungual papillomatosis; a viral disease linked to overpopulation and environmental contamination.
Just in that period I was asking a series of questions about the cases of genital condilomatosis, caused by Human Papillomavirus, I found more and more numerous among my patients I would examine in my study as a gynaecologist and in the hospital department where I work. The number of women affected by H.P.V. (Human Papillomavirus) in their genital part was really striking and the hypotheses I had formulated since that moment didn’t satisfy me at all.
Now sexual promiscuity seemed to have become a mass phenomenon. How differently could we explain the fact all social classes, education levels, working categories and not, were present among women affected by Papillomavirus? Even the age of the patients was the most various one and even though unmarried girls till 26-27 years of age were more prevailing, housewives and clerks after their thirty years of age,married women with children were also very numerous; I had surprisingly observed genital condylomatosis cases even in women who were in menopause.
For this reason when I heard the story about deers I couldn’t stop thinking of the viruses, and above all the transmission modality of the latter (Human Papillomavirus) and their role. For a start I was more and more perplexed in front of some couples who seemed sincerely amazed by the way in which the woman might have caught the infection. At first, I must say, I was rather sceptical about each partner’s sincerity there hadn’t been any extramarital intercourses. Some months after the beginning of the epidemic, I could even date in September 1990, I started carrying out researches on the viral D.N.A.
I subjected the urines of the male of the couples, in the ones where the woman was affected by condylomatosis, to the reaction of the polymerase chain for HPV[2], a technique allowing to identify even the smallest virus quantities on biological materials and not. A high percentage of cases proved to be positive without man apparently had any trouble or genital lesion. This didn’t surprise me so much and I could have concluded that the only cause of the epidemic was the mass spreading of sexual promiscuity. Yet I wasn’t so convinced. Besides the seat and the morfology of the lesions made me perplexed.
In fact since then even if there were multiple condylomata, every single element seemed to be isolated. In the new epidemic the aspect was the one of a diffused or wide microcondylomatosis where it was impossible to define, often also at a colposcopic vision, that is magnification, every single lesion. Also the seat was changed because if previously all the genital areas (vulva, vagina, cervix uteri, anus) might be affected, now, at least in the initial phase only vulva and vaginal incomes were involved. The story of deers made me think of a possible environmental source of the infection. But how was it possible?
Then I decided to look for, in literature, all that recently there was about warts or genital condylomata and I studied, more carefully, the clinical cases as I happened to face them.
[1] Leonardo Da Vinci. Codice Atlantico, foglio 147 (1487).Biblioteca Ambrosiana Milano. Reprinted in Leonardo Da Vinci Scritti Letterari, pag.65. BUR Milano 1991.
[2] Melchers W J G, Schift R, Stolz E, Linderman J and Quint W G. Human papillomavirus detection in urine sample from male patients by the polimerase chain reaction. Journal of clinical Microbiology Pag. 1711-4 Aug.1989.
Translated from “Il Virus Intelligente” by Enrica Narducci
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Ferdinando Gargiulo offers you a new perspective on why new viral epidemics, assaults, infanticides, suicide epidemics and even environmental catastrophes. Always engaged in his research decides to create a blog to offer his readers content of high value.