Dr Simon Mays discovers a 600 year old diseased skeleton from a church yard in Essex. Will the bones of Rivenhall women show signs that treponemal disease was in Europe prior to the voyage of Columbus?

The bones of Rivenhall women

At the end of the 15th century a terrifying new epidemic spread across Europe, but was this disease, known as the Great Pox, really Syphilis? Did Christopher Columbus actually bring the disease back from the New World? Join us as we look at whether the discovery of a 600 year old skeleton can shed new light on the origins of one of mankind's most enduring diseases, which still affects 12 million people every year. This material forms part of The Open University course S320 Infectious disease.

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The bones of Rivenhall women

The bones of Rivenhall women

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