h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is my understanding we got syphilis from the south americans in exchange for measles

However, neither party was too happy about this deal in the long run. The europeans were not used to syphilis and the south americans not to measles - and in years after that hundreds of thousands succumbed to these diseases

Smallpox killed at least a couple dozen people in the Americas as well--or ill.

syphilis

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A3826163

Interesting!

Here's a theory: The vikings infected native americans who in turn infected columbus' sailors with a mutated variant

No? Could make a good story anyway

Isn't the death rate from smallpox greater than that from syphilis?
Not that this has anything to do with Batty's fan club.

i guess it was back in the olden days but these days smallpox have been wiped out almost completely, haven't they?

The last case of smallpox was recorded some years ago.

But it seems syphilis is getting a revival, like other sexual transmitted diseases. People are no longer afraid of aids, it seems

bring back traditional cures for STDs that will put back the fear

the umbarella

I thought AIDS was technically an STD. No?

I know you can get it without the fun. Many bleeders did

Most of that was early in the game, before there were tests for the virus.

Actually a lot of deaths could have been prevented had the authorities acted in time - but since it was believed that the disease only infected gay people nobody was in any hurry

We lost some great people to it. Arthur Ashe's death was especially poignant.

I lost a dear friend and coworker to this dreadful disease

There are a few African countries where a quarter or more of the population is HIV-positive. A while back, someone was predicting that when HIV hits India, where at least 30% of the population has latent tuberculosis, death rates would skyrocket. That doesn't seem to have happened yet. Maybe it won't be as dramatic as it is expected to be.

We can only hope

Some people are exposed to HIV but don't catch it. There are some others that test positive for it, but never go on to full-blown AIDS. This speaks to great variability in people's immune systems. Whatever else this disease does, causing us to go extinct is not likely.

Historically, there were people who caught smallpox and survived. There were people who got plague and survived. Even in the Americas, where upwards of 90% of the indigenous peoples died in the various waves of illness that the Europeans brought over with them, there were still some who survived and produced descendants. Montezuma's descendants are still very much with us. Many millions of people in South America have native Americans as ancestors.

And we can all thank Darwin for this

We can thank him for pointing it out, though I expect someone else would have done it if he hadn't.