Scabies and syphilis reached near-epidemic proportions among Ali’s soldiers in Syria

Evidence

Recognizing the seriousness of the situation Mehmed Ali had to order his nephew, Ahmed Pasha Yeğen, to supervise checking the soldiers himself. Eventually, and as evidence that these two ailments received particular attention, the pre-printed daily reports of the hospitals in Syria had separate entries for them in which the director of the hospital simply filled in the number of syphilitic and scabietic soldiers. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1122