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Sex & Columbus
Even before the time of Henry VIII, syphilis has been a curse for mankind. The first recorded outbreak was in 1495, after the return of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) from the Americas. (Syphilis is with us still today with its companions HIV and AIDS).
After Columbus found his way back to Old Europe, matters became more confused. It was called the "French disease" by the Italians and the "Italian disease" by the French. The Dutch believed its origin was in Spain. Tahitians thought it was an export from England.
Was the origin the fault of Christopher Columbus or the English or anyone else? Recent modern scientific research organised by Emory University in Georgia in the United States and the World Health Organization in Geneva in Switzerland suggests that poor Christopher is to blame.
It is possible that when a bug that came from the moist, tropical New World arrived in the cooler climate of Europe it survived by adapting to the nearest thing European man - and woman - could provide as a tropical environment: the genitals.
Let's go back to the New World for a moment. In New Orleans in the southern United States there was a symposium, just after Christmas, devoted to the market of sex for sale. A key speaker was Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia Uninversity in New York. (Columbia; Christopher Columbus again).
One of the elements of his talks was that "sex workers" in Chicago, where sex without a condom is the norm, had a high risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection. Maybe syphilis.
Plus ça change.
