Scientists figured out how syphilis reached Europe
Scientists claim that Columbus brought syphilis to Europe (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
A new study on the origin of syphilis in Europe has revealed completely unexpected results. Scientists have determined that a serious outbreak of the dangerous disease occurred due to travelers who returned from journeys to the Americas.
A study published in the journal Nature reveals what the researchers have discovered about the emergence of syphilis and how famous travelers are involved.
A serious outbreak of the deadly disease ravaged Europe for five years, starting in the spring of 1495. This led to the French army, gathered by King Charles VIII, becoming infected with the unpleasant disease. During their invasion of Italy, mercenaries from across the continent began falling ill in army camps.
Eventually, syphilis began spreading throughout the country. As the same soldiers returned home, they brought with them the sexually transmitted infection. By 1500, cases of syphilis, characterized by sores on the skin and genitals, were reported throughout Europe.
Researchers are confident that long before the epidemic in Europe, this disease existed in the Americas. This applies not only to syphilis but also to other sexually transmitted diseases.
"We’ve known for some time that syphilis-like infections occurred in the Americas for millennia, but from the lesions alone it’s impossible to fully characterize the disease," explained Dr. Casey Kirkpatrick from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.
Some data confirm that syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases began appearing in Europe after Christopher Columbus and his crew traveled through the Americas.
The researchers used ancient DNA to show that the outbreak originated in the Americas and spread thousands of kilometers within just a few years via Columbus's ships.
"The data clearly support a root in the Americas for syphilis and its known relatives, and their introduction to Europe starting in the late 15th century is most consistent with the data," emphasized one of the study's authors, Dr. Kirsten Bos.
If sexually transmitted diseases are left untreated, they begin to tear apart the body - driving the sufferer to madness, and causing heart, skin, bone, testicle, and other organ problems.
"While indigenous American groups harboured early forms of these diseases, Europeans were instrumental in spreading them around the world," the researchers add.
Even in those times, the sick sought answers and blamed other countries. The English called syphilis the French pox, Polish doctors referred to it as the German disease, and Turkish doctors were convinced that Christians were to blame.
However, by 1530, Europeans began to suspect that the disease had been brought from the Americas, associating its spread with the lifestyle of the Americans.
Until 2020, geneticists claimed that the DNA found in European skeletons from the early 1500s indicated that the bacteria causing syphilis were already present in Europe.
According to scientists, former US President Abraham Lincoln and his wife had syphilis, as did famous writers such as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce.
Some scholars believe that Adolf Hitler struggled with this disease for many years and even went mad, but there is no convincing evidence of this, only indirect proof.
