Was syphilis already in America before Christopher Columbus arrived?

Barcelona, ​​1493: a new evil seizes Spain, which soon spreads throughout Europe. Lesions on the genitals, severe skin rashes, ulcers, extreme pallor, asthenia… And, often, death at the end. It is an epidemic of venereal syphilis which is ravaging the Old World.

Its origin continues to be debated today: did syphilis pre-exist on the Old Continent, or was it brought back by Christopher Columbus’ colonists on their return from the Americas? Scientists disagree on the issue, with some defending the Columbian hypothesis, which argues for an American origin, others the pre-Columbian hypothesis, which argues the presence of the disease in Eurasia in medieval times and perhaps earlier. .

A new study, published in the journal Nature and led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute and the University of Córdoba, argues in favor of the first hypothesis, based on paleogenomic analyses, which aim to determine the evolutionary history of the bacteria.

Finding traces of syphilis in bones

By studying, through ancient bone samples, some of which date back to the 13th^e century, five treponemal genomes (linked to what is commonly called syphilis), the international team concludes that there has been an emergence in Europe of treponema palea (the bacteria responsible for syphilis and other related diseases) “post-human occupation of the Americas”.

Thanks to different techniques such as DNA extraction and genome sequencing, scientists were able to discover a historical presence of pale treponema across Mexico, Chile, Peru and Argentina: the strain of the bacteria could have give rise to syphilis and other related diseases.

However, syphilis-like bone lesions have been spotted on European skeletons dating from before 1492: while it is still unclear whether they can truly be linked to syphilis, advanced DNA analysis technologies could help determine their cause, so the team of researchers encourages further research in this direction.