Plain old Air Force and had crotch rot and toe fungus I'd thought would never go away after I got back. Crotch rot went away when I moved out to dry Arizona. Fungus faded away if I changed socks every day.
Man, there was shit over there that scared the hell out of ya'. Vike, was there really a Syphlus (spell check won't work) where guys were not allowed to come home? Or was that B.S?
Sarg
Sarge,
If you were in Thailand, and I recall you were, as was I off and on, you qualify for the official crotch rot award. Congrats.
I never saw a case of what we called "black syphilis" required to stay until cured. Must qualify that I was early going over for most who went and most of duties were SAR and cross border ops. But I did see some syph that was really antibiotic resistant. We did not have anything stronger than erythromycin and that was really not appropriate for STD's. Cipro and Septra was not available then. Tetracycline (vibromycin) was also used just to confuse the bugs but didn't do very well except for urinary tract infections. Penicillin killed it but many, including me, were allergic. Often we did not care about the allergy and went ahead with penicillin treatment. Sludge could probably tell us more about the interaction of various strains of mold that fight STD's. It is fascinating to read how some drugs were invented.
I would understand if someone was confined for a while just to make sure they did not advance to tertiary syphilis. There is a period of its development where it is not easy to diagnose. The first sign of syph is a chancre somewhere in the genital area, pain when pissing, blood in the urine, peritoneal (lower belly) pain and a positive Wassermann blood test, among others. You know you have a tertiary case when the eyebrows fall away and hands that form a knuckle have a pronounced whiteness to the bone. While you are in any stage you can spread the disease.
I think the "black syphilis" issue was caused by the rumor mill but again, I was not there when advanced cases became prevalent. I can tell you that infection control in 'Nam was a practical impossibility. Some of the cases where we had to amputate because the soldier was in the jungle and could not be evacuated, are memories I carry. A soldier who pulled a gun at the aid station and threatened to kill you or him when we wanted to amputate was not uncommon.
What troubled me the most was I would lecture these guys about STD treatment and recognition and mostly prevention, and they would ignore me. I could even predict who would catch it when they went to Bangkok on leave.