Arrival of Hernan Cortes in Veracruz with blue eyes mestizo baby and syphilis sick Hernan Cortes, Diego Rivera mural, Presidential Palace, Mexico City/Legion-Media/Alamy
From the first outbreak of the disease in the late fifteenth century, it became common practice to blame someone else for the spread of syphilis. In the Ottoman Empire, syphilis was called ‘the Christian disease’, and in Asia it was thought to have a Dutch origin. In the end, the Europeans decided to blame the indigenous peoples of the New World, claiming that they were the source of the latest epidemic. So, where did the most infamous venereal disease first appear? How was it treated? And what did the classics of world literature write about syphilis? Medical historian Elena Berger explores all these questions and more.