The introduction of diagnostic and treatment innovations for syphilis in postwar VD policy: «L’expérience belge»

Abstract

In this article, the introduction of the Wassermann Test and arsenic-based drugs in Belgian post-war venereal disease (VD) policy is discussed (for the period 1900- 1930). Pre-war advances in clinical medicine, the development of the Wassermann Test and arsenical drugs, as well as war conditions, were important in putting syphilis onto the public agenda in Belgium. However, the way in which new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and devices were incorporated within post-war VD policy depended on the reconciliation of a range of political, professional and moral agendas of interested health-political parties. Finally, a successful post-war VD policy depicted in terms of «The Belgian Experience» is discussed.