Warning: The article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight.
A question that has been plaguing viewers of House of the Dragon is: What is the disease that Paddy Considine‘s King Viserys is battling throughout the show’s first season? More importantly, could the ailment have been treated with modern medicine?
We’ve already seen multiple examples of women dying in childbirth in the show due to the maesters’ archaic understanding of safe surgery practices for what in the modern world is considered a routine procedure: the cesarean section. It’s worth wondering whether Viserys’ fate may have been a more positive one had the medicine of today applied in the world of the show, rather than the medieval-like existence they live in — albeit with dragons.
Warning: Spoilers for House of the Dragon episode eight to follow.
Considine, whose character died at the end of episode eight, confirmed in a recent interview that the disease Viserys was suffering from was in fact “a form of leprosy.” As the actor explained on the West of Westeros podcast,
“His body is deteriorating, his bones are deteriorating. He is not actually old. He’s still a young man in there. He’s just, unfortunately, got this thing that’s taken over his body.”
While we generally think of leprosy as being a disease from ancient times, that doesn’t mean it has disappeared from the world entirely. In fact, there were 127,558 new cases of leprosy detected around the world in 2020 alone, according to the World Health Organization. However, if you do get leprosy in modern times, it’s not necessarily the immediate death sentence it once was.
Leprosy, also called Hansen’s disease, is caused by the “slow-growing bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The combination of a diagnosis early on and intervention through treatment can actually lead to being fully cured of the disease. The agency went on to describe what we now know about the disease and how it can progress,
“Leprosy was once feared as a highly contagious and devastating disease, but now we know it doesn’t spread easily and treatment is very effective. However, if left untreated, the nerve damage can result in crippling of hands and feet, paralysis, and blindness.”
Fans have speculated King Viserys in House of the Dragon may have been inspired by Baldwin IV, a King of Jerusalem who lived from 1161-1185 and battled a slowly-progressing form of leprosy throughout his life and reign.