Syphilis widespread in Central Europe even before Columbus' voyage to America

In 1495, a "new" disease spread throughout Europe: syphilis. Christopher Columbus was said to have brought this sexually transmitted disease back from his voyage to America.

At least, that has been the accepted theory up until now. Using morphological and structural evidence, researchers from the Department of Forensic Medicine and the Center for Anatomy and Cell Biology (bone laboratory) at MedUni Vienna have now identified several cases of congenital syphilis dating back to as early as 1320 AD in skeletons from excavations at the cathedral square of St. Polten, Austria...

Congenital syphilis, which is passed from a pregnant mother to her unborn child, was primarily identified by changes to the teeth of skeletons from the 14th century. "We found so-called Hutchinson's teeth with central notches and converging edges and mulberry molars, which are characteristic signs of syphilis," study authors Kanz and Grobschmidt (Department of Cell and Developmental Biology) explained. Their findings have now been published in the renowned Journal of Biological and Clinical Anthropology...

Up to now, a total of 9000 skeletons as old as the 9th century AD have been recovered from the excavations in the cathedral square in St. Polten. The large number of unearthed individuals at one archaeological site is unique in Europe. The recovery was conducted in close collaboration with the Urban Archaeology Department of the state capital of Lower Austria. Additional studies of the living conditions and diseases evident from the skeletons were started.

This remarkable discovery of the earliest evidence of syphilis between 1320 and 1390 now awaits confirmation by molecular biological tests and proteomics (examination of the proteome using biochemical methods). The scientists hope to gain further insights from the proteomic analysis, in particular, because the DNA of syphilis decays very rapidly.

History of Syphilis
by Dr. Bruce M. Rothschild>
Oxford Journals: Clinical Infectious Diseases
...These insights allowed confident identification of the New World origin of syphilis. Absence of skeletal evidence of any treponemal disease in continental Europe before the time of Columbus excludes it as site of origin of syphilis. Treponemal disease appears to have originated in East Africa with late transmission to England, perhaps as a complication of the slave trade. The original treponemal disease apparently spread from Africa through Asia, entering North America. Approximately 8 millennia later, it mutated to syphilis. Presence of skeletal evidence of syphilis at the site in the Dominican Republic where Columbus landed suggests the route by which it was transmitted to the Old World...

Proof of European origins of syphilis would first require proof that any treponemal disease existed in pre-Columbian Europe. Actually, there is little evidence even of periosteal reaction, let alone of its existence as a population phenomenon in pre-twelfth century a.d. Europe. All evidence represents isolated cases for which alternative diagnoses are more likely...

Columbus came from continental Europe, where there is no evidence of any cases of treponematosis prior to 1492. Treponematosis originated in Africa in the form of yaws. It passed through Asia to North America, spinning off a mutation (in the form of bejel) on the way. Bejel also passed through Asia into North America. However, it was in North America that another mutation took place, creating syphilis.
Origins of Treponemal Disease
Kenya National Museum 1808 was a Homo erectus whose cause of death was originally diagnosed as a vitamin A overdose. However, the distinguished scientists who made the original report had actually never seen a case of bone afflicted by hypervitaminosis A (M. R. Zimmerman, personal communication). Bone reaction in hypervitaminosis A is calcification within tendons starting at the site of enthesial attachment, not periostitis. That recognition and presence of periosteal reaction from another H. erectus from that area revealed a disease that epidemiologically could only represent yaws.

It is perceived that bejel represented an early mutation of yaws as it passed through northeast Africa. Confidence in diagnoses of bejel and yaws through time is high because the reproducibility of findings in these diseases in general and for treponematoses in particular through time and geography has been clearly demonstrated. Curiously, continental Europe stayed free of treptonemal disease until it was contaminated by Columbian syphilis. Even the British Isles remained free of treponemal disease until the 13th century a.d., when yaws appeared, possibly related to initiation of a slave trade from yaws-afflicted West Africa.
What is History?
History is a complicated concept and is often the product of the victors' (e.g., in a conflict) desires to control how they or their causes are portrayed. The history of syphilis, therefore, can be approached from several perspectives: by name ascription, by actual origins, and according to the efforts to disassociate from it...

Did syphilis develop independently in both the New and Old Worlds? Did Columbus bring syphilis back to Europe? Was syphilis a previously misdiagnosed European disease that was subsequently transmitted to the New World? Was the early 16th century a.d. European syphilis epidemic in fact not new, and did its recognition simply reflect a new ability to distinguish syphilis from leprosy?
Evidence-Based Analysis
Preconceived notions have, until recently, compromised any opportunity to answer the questions above... Laboratory analyses have not been helpful. Metabolic, histologic, microbiologic, immunologic, and even sophisticated DNA techniques have failed to distinguish between yaws, bejel (nonvenereal syphilis), and venereal syphilis... distinguishing among the treponemal diseases still eludes us...

Syphilis, as one form of pathologic treponematosis, has a skeletal signature. It alters the appearance of bones in a highly specific manner, which one can find if one knows how to look. The peculiar skull radial scarring and sabre shin alterations appear to be specific for treponematosis, but such findings do not allow one to distinguish among the types of treponematosis, and use of periosteal reaction has limited specificity. The special skeletal appearance of syphilis, however, is recognizable as a population phenomenon. â€œOutliersâ€ in any disease process may mimic another disease (e.g., the pseudorheumatoid presentation of Wegener granulomatosis).

Pre-Columbian evidence of treponemal disease abounds in cemeteries in both the New and Old World, with diagnoses given for what were perceived to have been isolated individuals with periosteal reaction. Population analysis, however, provides an opportunity to confidently distinguish among the treponematoses...

The other pathologic treponemal diseases (yaws and bejel) have population frequencies of bone involvement of 20%-40%, easily facilitating distinguishing these diseases from syphilis. Although pinta has been referred to as a separate disorder with pathology limited to the skin, review of the literature about pinta actually revealed the presence of bone involvement due to pinta to be no different from that due to the endemic treponeme found in the same area...
Origin of Syphilis
The osseotype characteristics of syphilis are absent in specimens from pre-Columbian Europe, Africa, and Asia. With regard to North and South America, these characteristics have been identified in North America as far back as 8000 years ago in sites as disparate as Windover, Florida; Frontenac Island, New York; Libben, Ohio; and Amaknak, Alaska.

Somewhere between 2000 and 1800 years ago, the first identified osseotype of syphilis occurred. The Mogollan Ridge proved to be the dividing line with respect to both the first appearance of syphilis and the climatic change that may have been responsible for the event. Its osseous signature is recognized to have occurred 1500 years ago in New Mexico, 1000 years ago in Wisconsin, 800 years ago in Ecuador, 700 years ago in Florida, and 600 years ago in Michigan and West Virginia.

It is clear that syphilis was present in the New World at the time of Columbus' arrival. Especially pertinent is documentation of syphilis in the area where he actually landed, the Dominican Republic. The periosteal reaction characteristic of syphilis has been recognized in 6%-14% of skeletons from the El Soco (800 a.d.), Juan Dolio (1400 a.d.), La Caleta (1200-1300 a.d.), Atajadizo (1200-1300 a.d.), and Cueva Cabrera (1200-1300 a.d.) sites. The average number of bone groups affected ranged from 1.7 to 2.6. Sabre shin remodeling was often so marked as to erase all surface indications of periosteal reaction. The osseous evidence documents the presence of syphilis in the Dominican Republic where Columbus landed. Columbus' crew clearly had the opportunity and means to contract and spread the venereal disease we now call syphilis.

Syphilis
In Ancient and Prehistoric Times, Vol. 1 of 3
by F. Buret
http://www.forgottenbooks.com/books/Syphilis_To-Day_and_Among_the_Ancients_v1_1000290037
Our object in writing this book has been to spare the reader a herculean task. It is hardly possible, in fact, no matter how willing one may be, to wade through a couple of thousand volumes, merely for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the history of a disease. Syphilis, since it must be called by its name, is one of those affections which interests everybody: in the first place, those who have it, a very appreciative audience; and then those who are not affected by it; that is to say, those who run the risk of acquiring it. Do not protest; when you will have read this medico-literary study, if, perchance, jou. have the courage to go on to the end, you will not dare affirm that you will always be unscathed, for evil, like good, comes upon us while we sleep. When we contemplate the interminable list of authors who have written upon this disease since the great epidemic of the fifteenth centur, and the divergence in their opinions upon the origin and nature of it, one is, in a manner, dazed, and it is difficult to determine where to begin. It would certainly have been more convenient for us to have first read modern authors, several of whom, such as Hunter, Ricord, Alfred Fournier, Lancereaux, Mauriac, Rollet, and others, have described Syphilis in a masterly manner.

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