Columbus gave us syphilis!!

Is Columbus to blame for bringing the nasty syphilis pathogen to Europe? Kristin Harper (Emory University, Atlanta, USA) Has been looking back in time to figure out the source of this pain in the crutch!

The syphilis-causing treponemes strains originated most recently in South America with their closest relatives of the disease. Harper says this information supports the hypothesis that syphilis came from the 'New World', but while it is generally agreed that the first recorded epidemic of syphilis occurred in Europe in 1495, controversy has raged ever since over the origin of the pathogen. In many cases, skeletal analysis has been inconclusive, due to faults with dating the bones and lack of further evidence.

To make the research even harder the family of treponema bacteria causes different diseases that share some symptoms but have different methods of transmission, for example syphilis is sexually transmitted, but yaws and endemic syphilis are tropical diseases that are transmitted through skin-to-skin or oral contact.

One theory for this European invasion of the disease is that a mutation took place to allow the pathogen to survive in much cooler harsher conditions.

Read the full article at DailyScience!