Reiter's syndrome

Reiter’s syndrome, a form of arthritis caused by a bacterial infection, was renamed “reactive arthritis” after it was found to have been named for a doctor who performed deadly typhus experiments on prisoners of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Studies of skeletal remains in cemetery sites show that when the Romans introduced town life to Britain 2,000 years ago, they also introduced us to scurvy, rickets, osteomalacia, Reiter’s syndrome, gout, ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, septic arthritis, tuberculosis, osteitis, poliomyelitis and leprosy.

At the other extreme is the example of the postinfectious arthritis known for half a century as Reiter’s syndrome.

Morris argued that Sisson suffered from Reiter's Syndrome, a rare and painful arthritis he contracted as a child, and was addicted to prescription painkillers including vicodin and oxycontin.

The inflammatory arthritis then known as “Reiter’s syndrome,” the group of doctors suggested, should change its name to “reactive arthritis.”