It’s Good to Know: New Evidence About the Origin of an Epidemic
by ETR (03/7/2008)
Historians agree that many deadly diseases were unknown in the New World until brought to the Americas by European explorers. Now it turns out that the explorers may have brought back a deadly disease to Europe: syphilis.
Recent genetic research by scientists from Emory University in Atlanta indicates that syphilis originated in the Americas, and the record reinforces their theory. The first European epidemic of this disease occurred in Italy just three years after Columbus ’s voyage in 1492. Although it is curable today, syphilis was a major killer during the Renaissance.
(Source: LiveScience)