Posted on 01/14/2008 5:31:47 PM PST by Sub-Driver
New study blames Columbus for syphilis spread
By Julie Steenhuysen 13 minutes ago
New genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from the New World, U.S. researchers said on Monday, reviving a centuries-old debate about the origins of the disease.
They said a genetic analysis of the syphilis family tree reveals that its closest relative was a South American cousin that causes yaws, an infection caused by a sub-species of the same bacteria.
"Some people think it is a really ancient disease that our earliest human ancestors would have had. Other people think it came from the New World," said Kristin Harper, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.
"What we found is that syphilis or a progenitor came from the New World to the Old World and this happened pretty recently in human history," said Harper, whose study appears in journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.
She said the study lends credence to the "Columbian theory," which links the first recorded European syphilis epidemic in 1495 to the return of Columbus and his crew.
"When you put together our genetic data with that epidemic in Naples in 1495, that is pretty strong support for the Columbian hypothesis," she said.
Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, starts out as a sore, but progresses to a rash, fever, and eventually can cause blindness, paralysis and dementia.
Most recent evidence of its origins comes from skeletal remains found in both the New World and the Old World. Chronic syphilis can leave telltale lesions on bone. "It has a worm-eaten appearance," Harper said in a telephone interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I am sure the bush was involved, somehow.
What will they blame on him next?
Anything and everything, of course.
Would not have been a problem, were it not that the sailing sinners fornicated around.
Some INFORMED scholars have submitted a more inclusive hypothesis on the history of Syphilis..
The Origins of Syphilis:
http://www.archaeology.org/9701/newsbriefs/syphilis.html
Don't touch that! You KNOW where it's been!
PBS covered this a while back. And while they seem to have pretty good evidence that there were remote pockets of infection in Europe during pre-Columbian times, it is almost certainly true that the largest spread of the infections came after he returned to Europe.
And they had (PBS) discussed yaws and a few other related infections. Seems there are/were variants that almost all children got, acting with little more damage than chicken pox, and providing lifelong immunity to the more deadly venereal type.
Patient Zero was a gay Air Canada flight attendant. He brought the first case of AIDS to North America. I forget his name but I’m sure it could be Googled.
Don’t forget that they have the casinos now too. I guess it is their turn to get us drunk and steal from us.
Huh? Did you read the article you linked to?
“Syphilis, it seems, developed in the New World from yaws, perhaps 1,600 years ago, and was waiting for Columbus and his crew.”
And to think, he only knew about the islands in the Caribbean and never even suspect the continent of America.
What a STUD!
Don't forget cocaine.
***I thought it came back from the Middle East with returning crusaders. Maybe that was another STD.***
Lepersy.
They didn’t have condoms back in the time of Columbus?
In days of old
When knights were bold
‘Fore rubbers were invented,
They’d wrap a sock
Around their...
Oh, never mind...
Good one!I got my laugh for the day.
I stand corrected.... Thank you.
I quickly misread, and somehow jumped to the conclusion that Columbus was being blamed for spreading the disease to the pristine “New World” -—— KNOWING is just the other way around.. I’ve grown so accustomed to the evil white man being blamed for everything.....
It appears the fine and noble pristine “native Americans” spread the scourge throughout the world using “visitors” as carriers..
This was NOT a “white man’s” disease originally, by a “noble native’s” disease.......
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