About This Image
A new approach to unravel the origin of syphilis.
The origin of numerous infectious diseases is still a mystery. Syphilis and the
other treponematoses are among them. Integrating information on treponematosis
from ancient human remains across time and space with modern phylogenetic data
on the treponemes holds the potential to enable calculations of the evolutionary
rate of treponemes. This in turn allows the origin of syphilis to be
disentangled. Such a combination of tools could also be used to shed light on
the origin of other infectious diseases that are still a burden to humankind
(see article by de Melo et
al., doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000575).
Artwork: Eduardo Gameiro. Original photographs: "Syphilis
of Skull," Otis Historical Archives National Museum of Health and Medicine;
"Electron micrograph of Treponema pallidum on cultures of cotton-tail rabbit
epithelium cells (Sf1Ep)," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
Public Health Image Library (CDC/Dr. David Cox).
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