Italian explorer Christopher Columbus has historically been charged with bringing syphilis-like diseases to the Americas, but a new study revealed the disease was running rampant thousands of years before.
The first onset of a syphilis epidemic was documented in the late 15th Century in Europe, leading historians to believe it was brought to America when Columbus set foot on the continent.
DNA evidence has now revealed that treponematosis, an age-old syphilis-like disease, existed in Brazil more than 2,000 years before the explorer set sail for the new world.
Left untreated, treponematosis may lead to disfiguring lesions and deformities in the bone, cartilage and skin – all of which can be painful and disabling.
Kerttu Majander, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Basel, said: ‘The fact that the findings represent an endemic type of treponemal diseases, and not sexually transmitted syphilis, leaves the origin of the sexually transmitted syphilis still unsettled.’
The team examined the bones of four people who died in the coastal region of Santa Catarina in Brazil thousands of years ago.
Pathogens found in teh remains that showed signs of a syphilis-like illness that likely resulted in mouth sores and shin pains.
The study, published in Nature, said the bones were excavated at the Jabuticabeira II archeological site and have been studied since 2016.
Researchers screened 37 out of 99 samples of sequencing data and found there were between seven and 133 positive hits for diseases stemming from the Treponema family.
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