Ancient Seamen Are Giving Europe Syphilis

Research suggest that syphilis was introduced to Europe by that slut Christopher Columbus and his sailors upon their return from the new world:

Kristin Harper from Emory University in Georgia and her team examined the DNA of 23 strains of three common subspecies of T. pallidum, including the sexually transmitted and non-venereal types.

From this they were able to construct a family tree showing how the bacteria had changed over time.

Of all the strains examined, the venereal syphilis-causing strains originated most recently and were most closely related to strains from South America.

“Our results lend support to the Columbian theory of syhpilis’ origin while suggesting that the non-sexually transmitted subspecies arose earlier in the Old World,” the researchers told PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Well, whatever. We still maintain that Columbus was a whore. And that he was really into pony play and sexual asphyxiation. Tell everyone you know.

Columbus ‘gave Europe syphilis’ [BBC]