Posted on 10/28/2008 8:03:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Two Egyptian mummies who died more than 3,500 years ago have provided clear evidence for the earliest known cases of malaria, according to a study presented this week in Naples at an international conference on ancient DNA.
Pathologist Andreas Nerlich and colleagues at the Academic Teaching Hospital München-Bogenhausen in Munich, Germany, studied 91 bone tissue samples from ancient Egyptian mummies and skeletons dating from 3500 to 500 B.C.
Using special techniques from molecular biology, such as DNA amplification and gene sequencing, the researchers identified ancient DNA for the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in tissues from two mummies...
Caused by four different kinds of parasites belonging to the Plasmodium family -- falciparum, malariae, ovale and vivax -- malaria is transmitted to humans through a bite from an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
Of the four, P. falciparum is the most common and the most deadly. It produces the most severe form of malaria, characterized by symptoms that include undulating high fever, chills, anemia and an enlarged spleen.
Although it is believed that malaria widely affected humanity long before the Greek physician Hippocrates wrote the first clinical description of the disease in 400 B.C., until now only one study, which used molecular analysis, clearly identified P. falciparum from that period.
The ancient DNA for the parasite was found in a Roman infant dating back to the 5th century A.D.
"In our finding, both positive cases came from two different tomb complexes at Thebes-West, dating from the New Kingdom until Late Period (1500 to 500 B.C.)," Nerlich said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dsc.discovery.com ...
Mummy told me there’d be days like this.
Dose of Tenacity Wears Down a Horrific Disease
New York Times | 3/26/2006 | Donald G. McNeil Jr.
Posted on 03/25/2006 7:00:08 PM PST by Born Conservative
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603196/posts
Mummy DNA Reveals Birth Of Ancient Scourge
Scientific American | 10-6-2006 | David Biello
Posted on 10/08/2006 3:30:07 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1715982/posts
Most Ancient Case Of Tuberculosis Found In 500,000-year-old Human;
Points To Modern Health Issues
Science Daily | 12-7-2007 | University of Texas at Austin
Posted on 12/07/2007 5:10:26 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1936456/posts
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Plasmodium wasn’t the only human parasite in ancient Egypt. According to Igor Sharafevich, the political systems of Egypt and Babylonia were essentially socialist and based on slave labor.
First Greek Mummy Once Led Privileged Life
Discovery News | August 8, 2008 | Rossella Lorenzi
Posted on 09/17/2008 10:13:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2084435/posts
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