# Disease and Bone Lesions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193 "2005-04-01T06:14:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193/1 "2005-04-01T06:14:30Z")
I just got done watching an episode of **Secrets of the Dead** where they were arguing for syphilis being an Old World disease. They brought up some good points but I still found the various hypotheses to be…lacking (but then again, they only have an hour to condense things down for the layperson, like myself). The main thing I want to know is, are there other diseases that leave lesions on the bones similar to syphilis? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193/2 "2005-04-01T06:29:39Z")
Yes, a number of other diseases are associated with bone lesions that resemble those of syphilis. I suspect the program you saw concerned this article: _Two Probable Cases of Treponemal Disease of Medieval Date From England_ (by Mays, Crane-Kramer, and Bayliss). I was able to locate the article on the internet but am unable to link to it. Regardless, the authors devote an extensive fraction of their manuscript to a “differential diagnosis” of the lesions (i.e. a consideration of what else the lesions might represent such as Paget’s Disease, osteomyelitis, yaws, and other assorted infections) and make quite a convincing case (IMO) that, indeed, the lesions are syphilitic in nature. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193/3 "2005-04-01T06:46:00Z")
Yes, I think that’s the one. They dug up the skeleton from a friary. I’ll have to try to look around for that article, thanks muchly 🙂 Further in the program though they were showing other skeletons from Pompeii and a Greek settlement in SE Italy that they also thought were syphilitic. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193/4 "2005-04-01T06:51:12Z")
Oh, and [Linky-link](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_syphilis/index.html) to the episode. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193/5 "2005-04-01T06:53:34Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > I’ll have to try to look around for that article. I was only able to access it through my university’s e.library (which has a subscriotion for on-line access) ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2005, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disease-and-bone-lesions/297193/6 "2005-04-01T06:59:00Z")
Yep, I have to go to my old JC here pretty soon to work some things out, so I will probably pop onto EbscoHost while I am there.