Although hailed for his discovery of the Americas in the 15th century, Christopher Columbus’s reputation was tainted because he was blamed for introducing syphilis to Europe.
However, several reports have since argued that the deadly disease was already widespread before Columbus landed back in Spain in 1493.
Now researchers Professor George Armelagos of Emory University, Assistant Professor Molly Zuckerman of Mississippi State University and Columbia University’s Dr Kristin Harper claim that all evidence clearing Columbus and his crew is flawed.
Curable in the present day by antibiotics, syphilis used to be a debilitating and often fatal disease and was the scourge of every major city.
Ever since the first recorded case in Europe took place in 1495 – three years after Columbus’s first voyage to the New World – doctors have argued over its origins.
Historians who argue that Columbus couldn’t have been the source point out that rudimentary 15th-century medical know-how meant doctors would not have been able to distinguish the disease from others with similar symptoms.
There are also skeletons from Europe that pre-date Columbus’s epic voyage and that show signs of syphilitic lesions.
At first, Armelagos found the idea of Columbus bringing the disease back laughable. Then he began a closer inspection of the 54 reports which put Columbus in the clear.
Writing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, his team reports: “We did not find a single case of Old World treponemal disease that has both a certain diagnosis and a secure pre-Columbian date.
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In the cases where the skeletons definitely were afflicted with syphilis, the researchers noted they came from coastal areas, which would make radio-carbon dating difficult because it’s likely the victims ate seafood, which can contain carbon many thousands of years old from water wells.” – Daily Mail