Name
The syphilis is named after the mythical shepherd Syphilos who was punished by the Olympic gods for blasphemy with a novel disease. The other name lues actually simply means epidemic, but it has been established to mean syphilis in particular.
History
One theory explains that syphilis was allegedly endemic in the New World and introduced to Europe by Spanish naval discoverers (leading to syphilis epidemics in Europe 1495, in India 1498, in China 1505). The other theory postulates that the syphilis already came from Central Africa to Europe in old Greek times. Today the disease is worldwide spread among humans.
Pathogen
The spirally coiled bacterium Treponema pallidum (old name Spirochaeta pallida; Fig. 1).
Old painting of silver-stained Treponema pallidum bacteria
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© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Mehlhorn, H. (2016). Syphilis. In: Mehlhorn, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Parasitology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_4360
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43978-4_4360
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