Disease originating in Americas that was transmitted to Europeans after 1492?

Question

Disease originating in Americas that was transmitted to Europeans after 1492?

Answer 1

Syphillis is the main disease.

Answer 2

Good heavens, haven't they ever heard of SYPHILIS?  It was first heard of in Naples in 1494-5, and people soon formed the theory that it had been transmitted back from the New World.  The idea is still around, and there is some evidence for it, but it isn't proved even today, as there is evidence against it too.

Answer 3

I thought the europeans brought the diseases...?

Answer 4

I cant find anything using google, as the other answerer said the Europeans brought the diesases to the america the worst being smallpox

Answer 5

Those honest, hardworking, innocent Indians somehow managed to give those Europeans syphillis.

There are two things to consider when you look at the tribes indigenous to the Americas. The first is that in South America, those people made human sacrifices, which understandably creeped out the Spanish a bit. In North America, there was the same amount of disease, politics, and war as anywhere else. A Cherokee and a Spaniard are both human.

The second is that not all Europeans were okay with the way the conquistadors -and those who came after- treated the Indian tribes. For a good example, check out Bartolome de las Casas. He wrote against the inhuman treatment of indigenous Americans.

Answer 6

It really worked the other way around.  Europeans brought diseases born in the crowded, dirty cities of Europe to people living in a relatively clean environment.  The Europeans had developed immunities that the natives simply did not have.  

Around the time of the Pilgrims, some Native American communities suffered losses of 90% or more.  It really was a plague for the natives, and the settlers took this as a sign from god that they were supposed to take the land.  (This is true, but it's not taught in high school history classes.)  

I'm not aware of diseases the Europeans caught from native Americans.