As virus spreads, anxiety rises in China and overseas

[appalachiablue]

23. Tx for the link. *Syphillis was first recorded in Europe in 1494.

The one pandemic disease we know of that has a good chance for having an origin in the Americas is syphilis.

When it first hit Europe in 1494 it spread rapidly and the mortality rate was very high (as is typical with new diseases that hit an immunologically naieve population).

As Jared Diamond describes it, "[W]hen syphilis was first definitelyrecorded in Europe in 1495, its pustules often covered the body fromthe head to the knees, caused flesh to fall from people's faces, andled to death within a few months." The disease then was much morelethal than it is today. Diamond concludes,"y 1546, the disease hadevolved into the disease with the symptoms so well known to ustoday."

Given the history of other pandemic diseases, it isn't too much of a stretch to speculate that it would have been even more devestating when it first broke out in the Americas, at least among the more densely settled communities, before both disease and host evolved to live with each other better.

I'm unaware of any archeological proof of this though (skeleton bone studies, etc). Most of the evidence behind the Americas theory of syphilis is currently circumstantial. https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/2872/plagues-in-pre-european-americas