Behcet’s disease is a rare autoimmune condition that causes inflammation in blood vessels throughout the body. I was diagnosed with this chronic illness in 1997. For years I wondered the same thing that you’re probably wondering if you’re reading this: Who is Behcet’s disease named after?
That’s what we’re going to discuss here. I’m going to tell you all about the man who’s name, for me and thousands of other Behcet’s sufferers, is synonymous with oral ulcers, genital lesions, eye inflammation, and a lot more.
Who Is Behcet’s Disease Named After?
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This rare form of vasculitis is named after a Turkish dermatologist named Hulusi Behçet. The correct pronunciation of his last name is bay-chet.
Every doctor, every patient, and every person I’ve ever heard say “Behcet’s disease” says it wrong – and so do I. It’s typically pronounced buh-shets, but this is technically incorrect.
That little squiggly thing underneath the c in Dr. Behçet’s name is called a cedilla. This is a mark that changes the pronunciation of the letter. Cedillas are used in several languages. But how they change pronunciation differs from one language to the next.
In Turkish, a cedilla under the letter c gives it a ch- sound. In French, however, a cedilla under the letter c gives it a s- sound. Though Dr. Behçet was Turkish, the cedilla in his name is often mistaken for a French one. Over time, more and more people started pronouncing it buh-shet instead of bay-chet.
Nowadays, in the English-speaking world at least, his name is almost universally pronounced buh-shet. And the illness named after him is pronounced buh-shets disease. But out of respect for the good doctor, I wanted you to know the correct pronunciation of his name.
I should also mention that you’ll sometimes see Behçet’s disease written with a cedilla. But when written in English, more often than not the cedilla is left out. Personally, I don’t use it in my writing when I’m referring to the disease. However, out of respect, I do use it when referring to the doctor.
Now that you know who Behcet’s disease is named after, let me tell you a little about Hulusi Behçet.
Who Was Hulusi Behçet?
Born in Istanbul on February 20, 1889, Hulusi had a difficult childhood. His mother, Ayse Behçet, died when he was very little. His father, Ahmet Behçet, was a well-known businessman. The family name – Behçet – means shining or brilliant.
After losing his mother, Hulusi was raised mostly by his grandmother. He spent much of his childhood alone and was quite introverted. Because his father had business in Damascus, that’s where Hulusi received his primary education. He learned French, Latin, German, and was a good student.
Hulusi Behçet
It was while in Damascus that Hulusi decided he wanted to pursue a career in medicine. At the time, there were no civilian medical schools. So at the age of 16, Hulusi began his medical education at Gulhane Military Medical Academy. He graduated in 1910 at the age of 21.
After becoming a medical doctor, Hulusi specialized in dermatology and venereal diseases at the same military academy. Dermatologists are physicians who study and treat disorders of the skin. And venereal diseases are what we now call sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
During World War I, Dr. Behçet worked as a dermatologist and venereal-disease specialist at Edirne Military Hospital. After the war, he traveled to Budapest, the capital of Hungary and then later to Germany’s capital, Berlin, to further his medical education. While in Hungary and Germany, Dr. Behçet had the opportunity to learn from several well-known physicians.
Eventually, he returned to Turkey and went into private practice. Additionally, Dr. Behçet started teaching at what is now Istanbul University School of Medicine. It was after returning to Turkey that Dr. Behçet married Refika Davaz, the daughter of a widely-known diplomat, in 1923. They had one child together: a daughter.
Ten years after getting married, Dr. Behçet founded the department of dermatology and venereal diseases at Istanbul University in 1933. In addition to studying and practicing medicine, Hulusi also enjoyed discussing and writing about it, especially when it came to his own original research.
Dr. Behçet regularly participated in medical conferences in his home country and abroad. One of his colleagues, Dr. Philipp Schwartz, once said that Dr. Behçet was “a scientist well-known everywhere but in his own country [because he was always] abroad presenting his findings.”
Hulusi published articles in a wide variety of publications. Though he wrote about a number of ailments including various venereal diseases and skin conditions, it was one condition in particular that his name would forever be associated with.
I’ll give you one guess what condition I’m talking about. That’s right: Behcet’s disease.
Dr. Hulusi Behçet and Behcet’s Disease
Dr. Behçet’s first encounter with the disease his name would forever be tied to came in 1924 when he took on a male patient with severe eye and skin problems. The patient had already been to several other physicians in Austria and Turkey.
None of them knew what to make of the man and his strange symptoms. Austrian doctors diagnosed him with an unknown protozoal disease. Other doctors thought he might have syphilis or tuberculosis (TB). Dr. Behçet continued to see him for many years. Sadly, the man eventually ended up losing his vision completely.
In 1930 a few years later, a woman with eye inflammation and lesions in her mouth and on her genitals was referred to Dr. Behçet. In spite of doing several biopsies and other tests, he couldn’t find a reason for her symptoms.
Then in 1936, another patient with symptoms similar to the man in 1924 and the woman in 1930 came to see Dr. Behçet. This patient had lesions on his skin and in his mouth, problems with his eyes, and stomach pain. After meeting these 3 patients and not being able to accurately diagnose them, Dr. Behçet concluded that they suffered from a new, undocumented disease.
In 1937, he described these patients and their symptoms in the medical journal Archives of Dermatology and Venereal Disease. That same year, Dr. Behçet presented his findings at a meeting of the Dermatology Association of Paris. Then in 1938, he published a more-detailed paper about the illness in the German medical journal Dermatologische Wochenschrift.
That same year, several other doctors reported cases presenting with similar symptoms. This caused European doctors to accept that it was, in fact, a new disease. However, not all doctors believed it at first.
While ophthalmologists generally accepted the new illness, many dermatologists insisted the symptoms were from known diseases. But after new cases were reported in Austria, Belgium, Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States, the entire medical community finally accepted that what had become known as Behcet’s disease was in fact a new illness.
In the years that followed, several names for this new disease were proposed. In 1947 at the International Medical Congress of Geneva, the name Morbus Behçet was decided upon. In those early days, the names Morbus Behçet, Trisymptom Behçet, and Behçet’s syndrome were all used to describe the illness. But today, the name those of us diagnosed with the illness are all-too familiar with – Behcet’s disease – is universally used.
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Behcet's doesn't censor itself when it attacks our bodies. So why should we censor ourselves when discussing it?
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Hulusi Behçet (1889-1948)
Over the course of his distinguished career, Dr. Behçet published 126 scientific articles between the years 1921 and 1940. Many of those articles were published in highly prestigious medical journals. In addition to his dedication to medicine, Dr. Behçet loved the arts, especially literature. Though he was quite introverted, it’s been reported that Hulusi could be extremely joyful and good-humored when among friends.
Dr. Behçet spent his career treating other people’s illnesses. But he also suffered from his own medical problems. At times, Hulusi experienced severe anxiety, insomnia, chest pain, and colitis (inflammation of the colon).
In 1941, after 18 years of marriage, Hulusi and his wife, Refika, divorced. Then, seven years later on March 8, 1948, Dr. Hulusi Behçet died suddenly from a heart attack.
And that’s the story of the Turkish dermatologist Behcet’s disease is named after. But Dr. Behçet wasn’t the only one to document the disease. And he wasn’t the first – not by a long shot.
Adamantiades and Hippocrates
6 years before Dr. Behçet first described the symptoms of what would become known as Behcet’s disease in 1937, the physician Benediktos Adamantiades wrote about it. Adamantiades was a Greek ophthalmologist and, like Dr. Behçet, noticed the three trademark symptoms of the disease.
Hippocrates
Adamantiades presented his finding to the Medical Society of Athens in 1930. That same year, his Athens lecture was published in a Greek medical journal and again in a French journal the following year. That’s why you’ll sometimes see Behcet’s disease referred to as Adamantiades-Behçet disease.
Since two of the organs Behcet’s disease affects the most are skin and eyes, it’s not too surprising that an eye doctor and a skin doctor would put together the puzzle pieces of this undocumented disease around the same time. But doctors describing the symptoms of Behcet’s disease go further back than either Behçet or Adamantiades – wayyy further back.
Nearly 2500 years ago, the famous Greek physician Hippocrates described several symptoms of Behcet’s disease including two of its trademark symptoms: oral ulcers and genital lesions. Often referred to as The Father of Medicine, Hippocrates is considered one of the most-influential physicians of all time. Even today, aspiring doctors must take the Hippocratic Oath, an oath about medical ethics that includes the famous phrase: “First do no harm.”
So, doctors have been writing about the symptoms of Behcet’s disease for millennia. But it was Dr. Hulusi Behçet who put all the major symptoms together: oral ulcers, genital lesions, eye problems, and more. And that’s why Behcet’s disease is named after him.
Conclusion
Now you know who Behcet’s disease is named after: Dr. Hulusi Behçet. He wasn’t the first physician to notice the symptoms of the illness. But he was the first to put all the pieces of the Behcet’s puzzle together.
If you’d like to put together the pieces of my Behcet’s puzzle, you can read the book I wrote about living with the illness: Finding Happiness Through Pain and Embarrassment: My Life With Behcet’s Disease – A Memoir.
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References
Since I got all the information for this article from just a few sources, I decided not to cite my references in the text. But I’ll list those references here for anyone who’s interested in learning more (although there isn’t much I didn’t cover):
Benediktos Adamantiades. (n.d.). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved January 4, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benediktos_Adamantiades
Saylan, T. (1997). Life story of Dr. Hulusi Behçet. Yonsei Medical Journal, 38(6):327-32.
Tan, S., & Poole, P. (2016). Hulusi Behçet (1889-1948): passion for dermatology. Singapore Medical Journal, 57(7):408-9.
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