Did Christopher Columbus bring syphilis to Europe?

A new study in the journal Nature highlights DNA evidence that contradicts the theory that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis back to Europe after his expeditions to the Americas.

What is syphilis?

According to the CDC, syphilis is a curable sexually transmitted disease that has four stages but can remain undetected for years.

The first stage and second stage occur when painless sores and rashes start to appear on the body.

The third stage involves the disease staying in the body without causing visible symptoms.

The last stage occurs when the syphilis starts damaging internal organs, mainly the heart, brain and nervous system, and can result in death.

Without treatment, a person risks getting worse symptoms in the second stage, including fever, hair loss and headaches, followed by blindness, hearing loss or changes in their mental state as they reach the last stage, per the CDC.

What does Christopher Columbus have to do with syphilis?

According to the Journal of Medicine and Life, syphilis was a very common sickness in Europe, Asia and Northern Africa, with countries blaming each other for starting the spread. Three hypotheses emerged within the past century about the origins of syphilis:

New DNA analysis contradicts popular theory

A newly published study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature describes findings from 2,000-year-old human remains discovered in Brazil. Researchers used DNA from the remains to reconstruct four known ancient genomes that can cause syphilis.

In doing so, scientists were able to reconstruct the oldest known genome of syphilis from indigenous remains that dated before Columbus’ arrival. It adds evidence that some form of syphilis was already in the new world before Columbus’ arrival, but it doesn’t quite rule out the possibility that Columbus’ fleet brought it back to Europe.

Verena Schuenemann, a professor of paleogenetics from the University of Basel and one of the scientists that helped lead the study, had this to say to CNN: “The new findings do not mean the venereal syphilis that caused the 15th century epidemic came to Europe from the Americas at the time of Columbus.”

Schuenemann’s team conducted another study similar to the new study back in 2020 that involved reconstructing the syphilis genomes from human remains found across Northern Europe. They found that there was already a form of the bacteria, T. pallidum (the bacteria that can cause syphilis), widespread across Europe before or around Columbus’ time.

These new results will help scientists as they continue to study the origins of syphilis, with Schuenemann’s team now having evidence that the bacteria that can cause syphilis and other related diseases was already widespread across both continents before Columbus’ time, per Business Insider.