Leprosy’s Origins Are Even Weirder Than We Thought

One of the world’s oldest diseases has a more complicated date than expected. Today, the study reveals that a form of a form of leprosy has stained people in America before the Europeans.

The team of great international scientists conducting research, published Thursday in Science. Researchers found DNA evidence Mycobacterium lefromatosisRecently, many years ago, a recently formed European colonialism of European colonials 1000 years ago, slightly and South and South America. The findings increase the advantage of the dominant belief because the Europeans are responsible for entering LeProsy into a new world.

Small Fame for man’s destruction is so notorious that the Bible repeatedly referred to (some of these references) Other conditionsalthough). These bacteria can cause a chronic infection of our skin and nervous cells, although lesions and wounds can take years for symptoms. If not treated with antibiotics, the infection can occur gradually and permanently in these cells, causing lifelong disabled and other serious complications.

The leprosy, which was also called Hansen’s disease, was primarily Mycobactium Leprae Bacteria. But in 2008 scientists obvious a kind of similar kind, M. LepromatosisIt can cause it. Small M. Lepromatosis Subsequent cases more rarely than in America, mostly north and south. And we know very little about it, in part, both types of culture in the laboratory (viruses, viruses can repeat the cells from the inside).

Research specializes in the evolution of human diseases and decided to look at bacteria after his team discovered themselves.

“When we reveal unexpectedly, our interests began M. Lepromatosis The remains of an ancient person in North America, “The remains of an ancient person in northern America, the researcher gizmodo in the French Institute of Pasteur in Paris.” This asked how much this pathogen was spread on the continent and how much today was spreading today. “

The team analyzed the ancient DNA samples from modern daily people (mainly in the last small patients), as well as the ancient DNA samples, as well as from the people in America before the European contacts. Three of these ancient examples have been positively tested for bacteria, researchers, now found in people living in Canada and Argentina.

“Leprosy has been a disease brought to America by Europeans for a long time, which is true for work M. Leper. But our work shows at least one of the two types that cause itM. LepromatosisFor centuries, it is still here, and probably developed in thousands of years, “Rascovan said. This is in fact what we understand the history of the disease in America. “

Thanks to antibiotics and improved sewers, the world is rare (there are only 200 documented Every year in the United States). However, in some countries, in some countries of more than 200,000, it remains a public health problem in some countries declare global scale each year. The findings of researchers can complicate both past and future.

In most modern cases M. Lepromatosis Recently, the recent bacteria were associated with a special generation or clade, the team also identified an independent elderly clines in America within 9,000 years. These bacteria still offer mysterious animals to host home (there is a classic form of leprosy form in the United States Sometimes the armadillo was associated with exposure). And though M. leprae The world still leads to the majority of lepty events, the less popular cousin is, of course, has the potential to be a greater danger.

“Spreading her diversity, M. Lepromatosis may be a pathogenous pathogenous with different dynamics M. Leper“Rascovan said.

As often in science, the team raised more questions to respond. The bacteria hopes to open animal reservoirs in all this time, for example, in this process, opening animal reservoirs and watch their journey to other parts of the world. They now believe that a tension M. Lepromatosis In the 19th century, it was brought to the English islands ago, here still infect the red squirrel today. However, we are still in the dark about how the circumstances are documented.

“All this is not only a neglected disease, but the history and spread is just a pathogen indifferent beginning to be understood now,” Rascovan said.