Editing Syphilis and Zoophilia (section)

== Origins of syphilis ==

The origins of syphilis are not known. For a long time, the theory that prevailed was that the disease was brought from the New World to the Old on the occasion of Christopher Columbus' first voyage. This theory now seems to be called into question. Several researches have shown that it may have already been identified in ancient Greece and evidence has been brought to its existence in the Middle Ages.

Before these recent discoveries, it was believed that syphilis had first appeared in Naples in 1494 and had been brought there by Spanish sailors from the crew of Christopher Columbus who were taking part in a military campaign by Charles VIII. A phylogenetic analysis, however, gives credit to an epidemic of American origin from an easily transmissible agent and present in humans for a long time which would have mutated.