The origins of syphilis

I found this and thought I would send to all - here also is the url if you want to read further http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/syphilis.html 

Syphilis was first reported in Europe in 1494 among soldiers (and their camp followers) involved in a war between France and Naples. The disease was striking in two ways: for its unpleasantness and for its status as a new disease, unknown to the ancient medical authorities. Syphilis would remain a significant social and medical problem through the mid-20th century.

The “French Disease”

Until the 19th century, syphilis was known by many different names, but the most common was the “French Disease.” (The French called it the “Neopolitan disease,” in a pattern that would repeat itself elsewhere. Russians, for instance, sometimes called it the “Polish disease.”)

Origins

Syphilis is generally believed to have come originally from the New World, imported into Europe by Christopher Columbus’s sailors after their famous voyage of 1492. Two important early experiences with syphilis are recorded in Grunpeck’s ca. 1496Tractatus de pestilentiali scorra sive male de Franzos (also available in the vernacular German, and Ulrich von Hutten’s ca. 1519, Of the vvood called guaiacum, that healeth the Frenche pockes. Fracastoro is credited with naming the disease in his 1530 poem, “Syphilis.”