It was a death sentence very similar in terms of length and outcome to HIV. Millions of straight people having only "natural" vaginal sex died from Syphilis until antibiotics were discovered.

SO SIMILAR that before the scientific community realized HIV was a new disease many researchers assumed it was a new form of syphilis that due to some mutation was not being detected by tests for syphilis.

Only in the USA is HIV a disease mostly affecting homosexuals.

In the rest of the world it is a disease of mostly heterosexuals.

The whole notion that any disease strikes people based on a set of "moral standards" is beyond absurd.