In contrast to a common theory, new findings suggest Columbus-led expeditions may not have transported syphilis to Europe from the Americas, though they cannot disprove the claim with certainty
  • tacosanonymousEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    I never knew that Europeans tried to blame the Indigenous Americans for syphilis.

  • Lvxferre@mander.xyzEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    My [rather uninformed, I’m no Biologist nor Archaeologist] hypothesis is that the relevant bacterium clade is extremely old, probably older than the initial settlement of the Americas, and it was brought to the Americas by the native inhabitants. With then the current strains being mostly imported from Afro-Eurasia.

    (I live some 400km to the north of the digging site. My gut reaction to the author calling SC’s coast “southeastern” was a bit funny.)