"Four of the five skeletons [we analyzed] are dated before 1492, meaning that this pathogen diversity was already present in the Americas at time of [Christopher] Columbian contact," said study author Bos.
"Syphilis first erupted in Europe in 1494 in a French army camp, a year after Columbus returned from a voyage to America. The disfiguring disease spread between soldiers and their sexual partners."
"The so-called 'Columbian hypothesis' argues that syphilis was brought over to Europe by sailors returning from their colonization of indigenous Americans, marking an exchange of diseases alongside goods."
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