Plague doctors were not supposed to engage with the general public and could be subject to quarantine.Ī plague doctor’s protective clothing featured a light wax-coated leather or fabric overcoat that covered the breeches underneath, with the shirt tucked into the pants. Others were employed by the community just to record the number of infected persons. Most plague doctors were not experienced physicians, many even lacked medical training and had little to offer to the dying patients.
#Who created the plague doctor skin#
The protective clothing was meant for plague doctors who tried to “rebalance humors” by bloodletting, or by applying frogs or leeches on the skin lesions. At that time the cause of the bubonic and pulmonary plague was attributed to miasma, bad air, witchcraft, or punishment from God, but everyone could see that the disease spread by contact with the patient or with bodily fluids or cough-related droplets in the air. The first PPE, a head-to-toe protective suit, was invented in 1619 during the great plague in Europe by Dr Charles de Lorme (1584–1678), a physician to the French King Louis XIII. I read about one physician who, while bundled up in PPE, wears a photograph of himself on his gown to establish some personalized connection with patients. Today, in the midst of our pandemic, doctors, nurses, and all other staff members looking after COVID-19 patients have changed their white coats or green scrubs to plastic gowns, rubber gloves, masks, and face shields. Looking back on my days as a young doctor, I think that my coat was more to show who was the doctor in the room than to serve me or my patients with a protective device against germs.
When I was in clinical practice in the mid-1950s, I always wore a white lab coat in my office.
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