Syphilis i Christopher Columbus they have more in common than you might think.
Both syphilis and Columbus set foot on new continents and colonized the local inhabitants at the end of the 15th century. Columbus colonized the natives America, and syphilis of Europeans. They also have in common that they were looking for a way to Asia.
Syphilis first appeared in Europe in 1494, in the camp of the French army, a year after Columbus returned from his voyage to America. writes DW.
The disease spread among soldiers and their sexual partners, causing ulcers on the genitals, rectum or mouth.
In just five years, syphilis spread throughout Europe. It soon reached India, China and Japan. Sex, although not the only way of transmission, is a very effective way of spreading the disease.
The so-called "Columbus theory" claims that syphilis was brought to Europe by sailors returning from America. According to that theory, diseases were exchanged between Europeans and Americans, just as new products were exchanged: gunpowder for tomatoes, smallpox for syphilis.
A new study published a few days ago in the journal Nature supports that hypothesis.
Kirsten Bos, an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, conducted a genetic analysis of five skeletons found in South America. The analyzes led Bos and her colleagues to believe that a precursor to the bacteria that causes syphilis circulated in the Americas 8.000 years ago.
"Four of the five skeletons date back to before 1492, which means that this variety of pathogens already existed in the Americas at the time of Columbus' contact," says study author Bos.
Syphilis originated in America 8.000 years ago
To test Columbus' theory, Bos and colleagues conducted a genetic analysis of bacteria from lesions on the bones of five skeletons from Chile, Argentina, Peru and Mexico.
Their bacterial samples included three subspecies of the treponemal family of bacteria responsible for various treponemal diseases. One of those subspecies, Treponema pallidum, causes modern syphilis.
Bos compared genetic differences between older subspecies of treponemal bacteria and modern samples of syphilis. That data allowed the team to calculate the time it took for the bacteria to evolve and estimate when the pathogen originated.
And their analysis appears to confirm that the bacterium Treponema pallidum, which causes syphilis, arose around the time of Columbus, mutating from its 8.000-year-old predecessor.
"Our model suggests that syphilis first appeared about 500 or 600 years ago, either in the Americas or in Europe (or elsewhere) from a bacterial strain from the Americas," Bos said.
How did syphilis spread around the world?
The study provides compelling evidence that the bacterium Treponema pallidum was widespread in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus from Renaissance Europe. However, it has not been conclusively proven that syphilis was brought to Europe from America.
"It shows that America was like a reservoir in which the bacteria that cause syphilis circulated widely." Syphilis could have come to Europe from another part of the world or was already there," says Matthew Beale, a genomics expert at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge. Bill was not involved in the study.
Studies indicate that treponemal diseases may have been endemic in northern Europe around the same time as Columbus' voyages, or even earlier.
The exact origin of syphilis is difficult to determine, says Kertu Majander, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
One hypothesis is that treponemal diseases have always existed, following humans as they migrated from Asia to the Americas about 12.000 years ago.
"Another theory is that they are zoonotic, meaning that the progenitors of syphilis passed from animals to humans in the Americas." But we still haven't found evidence of animals with treponemal diseases," Mayander explains.
Also, it is not clear what caused modern syphilis to become a highly transmissible disease 500-600 years ago. "It could be that something caused the bacterial species to recombine and cause more aggressive forms of syphilis, but we don't know that yet," Mayander adds.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that syphilis and gonorrhea are often mixed up in historical records and were only formally recognized as separate diseases about 200 years ago.
"There is still historical debate as to whether the 'syphilis' epidemic described in the 15th century was actually caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum," Bill says.
The problem is strains of syphilis resistant to antibiotics
Untreated syphilis used to disfigure people's bodies and cause paralysis, blindness, pain attacks, and even death. The development of the antibiotic penicillin in 1943 eradicated the dangerous symptoms of syphilis, although it did not cure the disease itself.
Syphilis still exists. Sexually transmitted diseases cause more than eight million new cases each year, while congenital syphilis causes about 200.000 stillbirths.
Cases are also rising among young adults, and research suggests this may be linked to an increase in unprotected sex.
There are also strains of the Treponema pallidum bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, meaning that deadly syphilis infections are re-emerging.
That's why studies like this are relevant, Mayander says, especially if we want to eradicate syphilis: "The study shows that syphilis has the ability to adapt to any environment. The question arises whether other treponemal diseases existed before, and whether new, more aggressive diseases could appear in the future."
