| Home > Resources > Leadership > Executive Summary > Case Studies Case Study Blaming "Outsiders" for Causing Disease Individuals and groups of different national origin or ethnic or religious background have long been singled out as the source of disease. For example, the early sixteenth century, diverse people have attributed syphilis outbreaks to everyone but themselves. Syphilis has been called "morbus gallicus" (the French pox) in Italy; "le mal de Naples" (the disease of Naples) in France; the "Polish disease" in Russia; the "Russian disease" in Siberia; the "Portuguese disease" in India and Japan; the "Castilian disease" in Portugal; and the "British disease" in Tahiti. Scapegoating may be more pronounced in the context of bioterrorism when an epidemic has been deliberately unleashed.
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