Mummified bodies reveal how tuberculosis ravaged the heart of 18th century Europe
Tuesday, April 7, 2015 - 12:30
in Health & Medicine
Bodies found in a 200 year-old Hungarian crypt have revealed the secrets of how tuberculosis (TB) took hold in 18th century Europe, according to a research team. "Microbiological analyses of samples from contemporary TB patients usually report a single strain of tuberculosis per patient. By contrast, five of the eight bodies in our study yielded more than one type of tuberculosis -- remarkably from one individual we obtained evidence of three distinct strains," one researcher said.