It was followed by the introduction of penicillin in The history of syphilis has been well studied, but the exact origin of the disease was the source of debate until archaeological and genetic evidence showed conclusively it originated in the Americas. The other hypothesis, first proposed in the s, was that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized. The deadliest of the four diseases that constitute treponematosis is syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease of adults.
The others are bejel , yaws , and pinta , endemic childhood diseases that are usually not fatal, if still unpleasant and disfiguring. It was often confused not only with the other treponematoses, but also with completely different diseases that produced similar symptoms. These included leprosy Hansen's disease , elephantiasis , and scabies , among many others. Two primary hypotheses emerged. One proposed that syphilis was carried to Europe from the Americas by the men who sailed with Christopher Columbus as a byproduct of the Columbian exchange.
The other held that it previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized. These are referred to as the "Columbian" and "pre-Columbian" hypotheses. There is no doubt that treponematosis existed in the Americas long before contact with Europe and Afro-Eurasia.
For decades scholars of North and South American prehistory have agreed that the evidence from bones and teeth is clear. A lack of written evidence for the existence of syphilis in Europe, combined with an explosion of sources attesting to the appearance of a virulent new disease following exploration of the Caribbean islands, led some historians to accept the opinions of contemporary medical writers that Columbus and his men had brought the disease to Spain from America.
From there it spread rapidly. This epidemic, perhaps the result of a more transmissible or deadlier variant of treponematosis, although that is not yet known, led to significant confusion beginning in the eighteenth century and exemplified most recently in the work of Kristin N.
