Mummies tell history of a 'modern' plague
Monday, May 23, 2011 - 12:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Mummies from along the Nile are revealing how age-old irrigation techniques may have boosted the plague of schistosomiasis, a water-borne parasitic disease that infects an estimated 200 million people today. An analysis by scientists of mummies from Nubia, a former kingdom located in present-day Sudan, provides details for the first time about the prevalence of the disease in ancient times, and how human alteration of the environment may have contributed to its spread.