When a mysterious flesh-rotting disease broke out in Europe in 1495, two years after Christopher Columbus returned from the Americas, suspicion fell on his crew.
Syphilis was soon rampant across the Continent and beyond, but its origins continued to be fiercely debated, with some historians claiming it was actually home-grown.
Now, scientists have carried out genetic testing on the bones of infected people from Chile, Peru, Mexico and Argentina, who lived between the 13th and 15th centuries and died before Columbus arrived.
