I grew up being taught in school and university that the contact with the "Old World" (particularly Europeans) was the source of many of the diseases in the Americas. But more and more evidence is emerging to push back on that idea. From "Ancient DNA pushes back record of treponemal disease-causing bacteria by 3,000 years":
Scientists have recovered a genome of Treponema pallidum – the bacterium whose subspecies today are responsible for four treponemal diseases, including syphilis – from 5,500-year-old human remains in Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. The research expands knowledge about the history of this infectious disease and its occurrence in human populations, with findings now published in the journal Science.
The individual was archaeologically recovered from a rock shelter near Bogotá, Colombia, dating back roughly 5,500 years. The discovery pushes the genetic record of this pathogenic species back by more than 3,000 years, strengthening evidence that these infections have circulated in the Americas far longer than previously known.
More: "Syphilis microbe circulated in the Americas thousands of years before European contact"--Science.
And probably came from the New World.
ReplyDeleteThat is the current theory in the scientific establishment. I wonder how many died in the Old World from syphilis versus died from diseases introduced to the New World.
DeleteOh, I think the Old World won that one. Smallpox alone probably wiped out half the pre-Columbian native population.
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