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 hadn’t heard that one but Yaws was endemic to West Africa, tooand West Africa was explored about the same time.
The penchant for blaming people for stuff.
According to Wikipedia (I know, I know, a grain of salt), the "Patient Zero" idea is probably a myth.
I wasn’t aware that the Patient Zero theory had come under ridicule; thanks for sharing.
I read the book during the first Gulf War when I was a transcriptionist at Wilford Hall. I was hoping to find a simian connection, but it wasn’t there.
We had an AIDS ward in the hospital and mosquitos were seen coming through the ductwork. I had some concern, at the time, being much younger and people being less educated about AIDS.
He did have to get it from someplace, that is certain. However, given his extremely high level of sexual activity he was certainly a primary factor in the early and rapid spread of AIDS.
I think we had a thread here earlier on a Scottish burial that predated Columbus that showed the characteristic lesions of syphillis on the bones. Quite a mystery.
But back to Columbus.
Lookout: Land Ho!
Columbus: What Ho?
Lookout: Naked Indians Ho!
Columbus: Wonderful Hos! Lower the trous...er...boats.
Poor guys on his voyages didn’t know all those hotties on the beaches without clothes were walking deathtraps.
Skeletons excavated at Hull, dated to between 1300 and 1450, had clear signs of syphilis
From my link, "David Evans, who directed excavations at the Augustinian friary, dated the skeletons somewhat later between 1450 and 1475 based on stratification."
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