People have long hypothesized that Columbus brought the basics of syphilis back with him when he returned to Europe from the New World. But it was always circumstantially based on the fact that the timing of the first recorded syphilis outbreak matched up. But we're not ones to indict an explorer based on circumstantial evidence. At least not when we can use science.
Kristin N. Harper, a researcher in molecular genetics at Emory University, led a study showing that the straing of Treponema pallidum causing the STD syphilis arose is closely related to a strain responsible for the nonvenereal infection yaws, particularly in a variety recently found in children in Guyana, the only known site of yaws infections today.
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