Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Did Syphilis start as a skin ailment?

New research suggests that Syphilis was intelligent enough to evolve as a disease -- from a skin ailment to a sexually transmitted virus, more likely to be passed among humans in Europe's frigid climate (where skin contact was rare.)

16th century accounts of Syphilis describe it as causing painful, oozing boils - not the kind of thing you'd get laid with, and therefore not beneficial to Syphilis's survival. So, it evolved into the infertility- and insanity-causing Syphilis of today.