The sweating sickness is a name used to define an illness occurring in Europe, particularly in England in the 15th and 16th centuries. People found it to be a frightening and contagious illness that began with sweating and end ended in death, often within several hours.

Experts believe the sweating sickness was due to a form of hantavirus but this is just an educated guess. It occurred in a group of epidemics, beginning in 1485 and occurring several times until the last epidemic occurred in 1551. The epicenter of the epidemics appeared to be in England, giving it the name the “English sweate”; however, there were many areas of Europe that were also affected to varying degrees.

During the first epidemic of sweating sickness in 1485, King Henry the VII was king of England. The disease was highly contagious and killed many thousands of people in London alone. The epidemic lasted from August of 1485 to October of the same year. It had spread to Ireland by the year 1492 and killed many people there. It was said the sickness lasted less than twenty four hours and that anyone who lived beyond a day with the sickness seemed to recover.

Luckily, the sweating sickness did not affect children or infants. Two more similar epidemics occurred in 1507 and again in 1517. The second epidemic was far worse than the first. Fortunately, the worst epidemic didn’t spread beyond the borders of England. On a historical note, the husband of Katherine of Aragon and heir to the British throne, Arthur, was said to have died of the sweating sickness.

The sweating sickness did not return until 1528 and it turned out to be a very lethal epidemic. Henry the VIII was king then and he escaped to the countryside while thousands died in the city of London. This epidemic spread into Northern England but spared both Ireland and Scotland. This was the epidemic that spread throughout parts of Europe, including Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

France and Italy were spared from having the disease. Thousands of patients died throughout Europe over a period of several months. Being such a virulent virus, it easily burned itself out over the course of a few weeks. This is a fact common to virulent diseases that kill their hosts quickly often die out before the disease can spread to other hosts. The sweating sickness is just one of those illnesses.

The last big epidemic of sweating sickness occurred primarily in England in the year 1551. The condition came on abruptly with a feeling of nervousness followed by shaking and headaches with neck pain and pains in the arms and legs. After feeling cold for awhile, the patient began to feel hot and began to sweat. This resulted in a feeling of thirstiness, quick pulse, a sense of delirium and a bad headache. The person then degenerated into exhaustion and sleepiness. There were those that thought as long as one didn’t sleep, one could survive the illness. A person could have the sweating sickness several times before finally dying of the disease.

People in the current time who have excessive sweating, may call it sweating sickness, but it not associated with any "sweating sickness" of historic times. Having excessive sweating is not fatal, but only a major inconvenience. However, it could be a symptom of other issues, so if it is combined with other symptoms, we recommend you visit with your doctor for consultation.

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