 |
|
Abandoned bones suggest TB wiped out leprosy in battle of killer diseases
February 07, 2005The spread of tuberculosis may have killed off leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages, according to research published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Proceedings B.
A collaborative study led by University College London (UCL) scientists, following the discovery of a shrouded body in a sealed chamber overlooked by tomb robbers, found evidence of both diseases in a range of archaeological remains dating from the 1st to the 15th centuries.
An initial examination of the body, currently under analysis in Israel, revealed signs of co-infection of TB and leprosy in the bone tissue. The collaborative team, led by Dr Helen Donoghue and Dr Mark Spigelman from UCL's Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, went on to identify co-infection in ancient bones around Europe, where the DNA of the bacteria behind both diseases was detected in 42 per cent of the samples examined.
In the Middle Ages leprosy was a widespread, much-feared disease which unaccountably declined around the same time that tuberculosis began to spread across Europe. TB went on to become a major long-term epidemic disease, with one-third of the world's population now infected and more than 8 million new cases in the year 2000 alone.
Researchers now believe that the two trends were no coincidence. In fact, the new findings suggest that TB overtook leprosy as the more aggressive, faster-killing disease.
Dr Mark Spigelman says: "We stumbled across this discovery while examining a shrouded body excavated by Israeli archaeologist Dr Shimon Gibson. The body from around Jerusalem dated from the 1st century AD, when the normal burial practice was to wrap it in a shroud, then return after a suitable time and rebury the bones in an ossuary".
"In this case, the shrouded body had not been re-buried. We thought there must have been a reason for this, so we decided to look for signs of leprosy - a cause of fear and stigma at the time - in addition to the tuberculosis which we had already found to be present".
Dr Helen Donoghue says: "After finding both diseases in the body, we re-examined other samples from sites around ancient and mediaeval Europe and realized that we were looking at a fairly common, previously unrecognised phenomenon of co-infection".
"Scientists have previously speculated over whether cross-immunity might have protected tuberculosis patients from leprosy. However, our findings suggest a different explanation".
"A weakening of the immune system following infection by leprosy, coupled with the stress, poverty and malnutrition associated with the social isolation and stigma of living with the disease, could have paved the way for opportunistic co-infection by TB which brought a speedier death. In time this would reduce the number of individuals suffering from leprosy, leading to its overall decline."
University College London - UCL
In the Middle Ages leprosy was a widespread, much-feared disease which unaccountably declined around the same time that tuberculosis began to spread across Europe. TB went on to become a major long-term epidemic disease, with one-third of the world's population now infected and more than 8 million new cases in the year 2000 alone.
Researchers now believe that the two trends were no coincidence. In fact, the new findings suggest that TB overtook leprosy as the more aggressive, faster-killing disease.
Dr Mark Spigelman says: "We stumbled across this discovery while examining a shrouded body excavated by Israeli archaeologist Dr Shimon Gibson. The body from around Jerusalem dated from the 1st century AD, when the normal burial practice was to wrap it in a shroud, then return after a suitable time and rebury the bones in an ossuary".
"In this case, the shrouded body had not been re-buried. We thought there must have been a reason for this, so we decided to look for signs of leprosy - a cause of fear and stigma at the time - in addition to the tuberculosis which we had already found to be present".
Dr Helen Donoghue says: "After finding both diseases in the body, we re-examined other samples from sites around ancient and mediaeval Europe and realized that we were looking at a fairly common, previously unrecognised phenomenon of co-infection".
"Scientists have previously speculated over whether cross-immunity might have protected tuberculosis patients from leprosy. However, our findings suggest a different explanation".
"A weakening of the immune system following infection by leprosy, coupled with the stress, poverty and malnutrition associated with the social isolation and stigma of living with the disease, could have paved the way for opportunistic co-infection by TB which brought a speedier death. In time this would reduce the number of individuals suffering from leprosy, leading to its overall decline."
University College London - UCL
Tuberculosis News and Current Tuberculosis Events RSSNew method to overcome multiple drug resistant diseases developed by Stanford researchers
Many drugs once considered Charles Atlases of the pharmaceutical realm have been reduced to the therapeutic equivalent of 97-pound weaklings as the diseases they once dispatched with ease have developed resistance to them.
India continues to progress in AIDS vaccine development efforts
A second Phase I AIDS vaccine clinical trial in India was successfully completed, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the National AIDS Control Organization and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative announced. The results of the trial of an MVA-based AIDS vaccine candidate (TBC-M4), which was conducted in Chennai, indicated that the vaccine candidate had acceptable levels of safety and was well tolerated.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis found in California
In the first statewide study of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) in the United States, California officials have identified 18 cases of the dangerous and difficult-to-treat disease between 1993 and 2006, and 77 cases that were one step away from XDR TB. The study appears in the August 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.
Comprehensive treatment of extensively drug-resistant TB works, study finds
The death sentence that too often accompanies a diagnosis of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) can be commuted if an individualized outpatient therapy program is followed - even in countries with limited resources and a heavy burden of TB.
Treatment outcomes highlight dangers of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis
In a retrospective study of 174 tuberculosis patients treated at National Jewish Health (formerly National Jewish Medical and Research Center), patients with extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) were almost eight times as likely to die as patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev initiates project to eliminate intestinal worms in Ethiopia
A professor at The Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) is beginning an intensive program in Ethiopia this August to eradicate intestinal worms which affect as much as 50 percent of the population in Africa.
Certain HIV treatment less effective when used with anti-TB therapy
Patients receiving rifampicin-based anti-tuberculosis therapy are more likely to experience virological failure when starting nevirapine-based antiretroviral therapy, an HIV treatment that is widely used in developing countries because of lower cost, than when starting efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy.
Study helps identify which populations of foreign-born persons living in US at higher risk of TB
The relative yield of finding and treating latent tuberculosis is particularly high among higher-risk groups of foreign-born persons living in the U.S., such as individuals from most countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
Tuberculosis presents major challenges to HIV treatment in developing countries
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care and treatment programs in resource-limited settings must aggressively address tuberculosis (TB) and the emerging multidrug-resistant TB epidemic to save patient lives and to curb the global TB burden, a major cause of death for persons with HIV.
Bovine tuberculosis in wildlife threatens endangered lynx and cattle health
In an epidemiological survey of Spain's Doñana National Park, the findings of which are published on July 23 in the journal PLoS ONE, Christian Gortázar and colleagues studied the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) infection among populations of wild boar, red deer and fallow deer in the national park, which is located in southern Spain.
More Tuberculosis News Articles
 | Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag In 1978 Susan Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor, a classic work described by Newsweek as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the... |
 | The Air We Breathe: A Novel by Andrea Barrett The exquisite, much-anticipated new novel by the author of Ship Fever, winner of the National Book Award.In fall 1916, Americans debate whether to enter the European war. "Preparedness parades" march and headlines report German spies. But in an isolated community in the Adirondacks, the danger is barely felt. At Tamarack Lake the focus is on the sick. Wealthy tubercular patients live in private... |
 | Identification Problems in the Social Sciences by Charles F. Manski This book provides a language and a set of tools for finding bounds on the predictions that social and behavioral scientists can logically make from nonexperimental and experimental data. The economist Charles Manski draws on examples from criminology, demography, epidemiology, social psychology, and sociology as well as economics to illustrate this language and to demonstrate the broad... |
 | New Topics in Tuberculosis Research |
 | The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man, and Society by Rene J. Dubos |
 | The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad A dying sailor boards the Narcissus and acts as a memento mori upon his shipmates, eliciting pity and selfless compassion as well as fear, resentment, and a profound hatred. The powerful narrative technique captures every nuance of atmospheric tension for a compelling study of men's characters under conditions of extreme danger and... |
 | The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook A brilliantly imagined, lavish, and transporting novel of a young woman’s search for the truth about her family’s mythic past Meg Mabry has spent her life with her back turned to her legendary family legacy. In the 1890s her great-grandmother Hannah Bass composed starkly revealing diaries of her life on the southwestern frontier, first as a Harvey Girl at the glamorous Montezuma Resort in New... |
 | Basic Infection Control for Healthcare Providers by Michael Kennamer Basic Infection Control for Health Care Providers, Second Edition, is a clear and concise guide to preventing occupational exposure hazards and communicable and infectious diseases. This book includes coverage on how to safely protect oneself from infectious agents and what do in case of infectious exposure. Discussions of the disease process and legal issues surrounding exposure and infectious... |
 | Behold the Many: A Novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka In 1913, stricken by tuberculosis, young Anah, Aki, and Leah are sent away from their family for treatment at St. Joseph's, an orphanage in Hawai'i's Kalihi Valley. Of the three, two will die there, and only Anah, the eldest, will survive. But the ghosts of the dead sisters will haunt Anah as she prepares to begin married life away from the orphanage. Desperate for the love of their sister, but... |
 | The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global View on a Reemerging Disease by CHARLOTTE ROBERTS, JANE BUIKSTRA Though apparently in decline during the first half of the 20th century, tuberculosis has reawakened in both developed and developing countries, particularly among susceptible populations with immunodeficiency disorders.... |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |