'Modern' Disease Found in Ancient People

Something new is old again. Or something old is new again. It's the same story here, with here being a study out of Emory University reporting that some of the peoples of the ancient Nubian lands died of a disease still around today.

That disease is schistosomiasis, which travels through the skin after contact with worm-infested waters. In the 21st Century, more than 200 million people contract this dread disease, which results in a rash, fever and chills, coughs and achy muscles. And that's when it's treated. If you don't do a thing about it other than hope it goes away, you could suffer damage to your internal organs, specifically the bladder, intestines, liver, and lungs. Nasty stuff, that schistosomiasis.

The thing is, scientists have thought that it's mainly a "modern" disease, meaning that the ancient folks, who suffered from many other diseases that aren't around today because we've managed to make drugs that help prevent or eradicate them, had this kind of sickness bullet to dodge as well.

How do we know this? Well, the good scientists who contributed to that Emory University study did some well-informed tests on 200 mummies found in two populations in what is now Sudan, at two different time periods: 1,200 years ago and 1,500 years ago. The earlier population was settled along a river but depended on canal irrigation to help their food crops flourish. The later population was different again, depending on only the oft-flooding Nile for their waterborne crop nourishment. Turns out that in both cases, that water was also bearing along the pathogen that likely made their lives very unpleasant, if not shortened.

You can read the full study here.