A medical history question

Are you saying Natives gave Euros syphilis or the other way around? I took a microbiology class years ago and the instructor advised syphilis is present in sheep and does not affect them. Some sheppard in the mid east or Greece or somewhere in that region of the world probably got lonely one nite and shagged a sheep and then went home a shagged a few of the locals, and what do ya know, we have syphilis.

The sheep might have gotten it from us...

I saw this Nova a few years ago that explained that the syphillis that the Europeans got from the Indians was a non-sexual variety that you got from skin to skin contact and Europeans quickly got immune to.

The variety of syphillis that the Europeans had had probably been around since (and maybe before) Roman times. It was prevelent in just about every port town. A high concentration of sailors and prositutes made it so. European sailors gave the sexual version to the Indians which was just another nail in their coffin.