By contrast, examination of 1,000 old world skeletons dated to before contact with the New World revealed no cases of syphilis (Rose, 1997). .
This suggests that syphilis was first present in the New World and was later brought to the Old World. Furthermore, the Rothschilds found that the earliest yaws cases in the New World collections were at least 6,000 years old, while the first syphilis cases were at least 800 years old and perhaps more than 1,600 years old. This suggests that syphilis may be a New World mutation of yaws, which has a worldwide distribution (Rose, 1997). .
By most historical accounts, it does seem that France was the likely starting point of the European epidemic. During Charles the VIII's Italian campaign in 1495, his mercenaries returned home with this new sickness. It spread quickly and viciously. The city of Lyons became so 'contaminated' with diseased people that in March of 1496 the infected people were expelled outside of the city walls. By 1497, the disease had spread throughout France. Less then a decade later, nearly all corners of Europe were already infected as well (Crosby, 1986). .
Shortly after the outbreak, it was noted that babies were born with a disease that seemed similar to syphilis. It seemed as if the entire continent, adults and newborns alike were affected by this epidemic. Perhaps as early as the first part of the 1600's, congenital syphilis was recognized as being distinct from adult onset syphilis. They believed it came from the fathers or the wet nurses. It wasn't until the early 1900's that they realized syphilis was transmitted through the placenta (Schwartz, 1965). .
Syphilis is primarily a sexually transmitted disease (STD). The original outbreaks were most likely caused when a new group entered an area where syphilis was present and unknowingly encountered the disease. The spread of syphilis was greatly do to lack of STD education.
