People in the Middle Ages had modern diseases?

US scientists on January 3 published research on medieval bones found in Albania, showing some traces of the disease spread in modern times, causing pain to those who eat avocados. Unpasteurized milk.

The findings are published in the "American Journal of Physical Anthropology" . These are the first studies suggesting that the disease known as Brucellosis , already in Albania at least since the Middle Ages.

As an animal disease, brucellosis is common in rural areas breeding in the Mediterranean and often infects humans through eating live sheep and goat cheese and made from the milk of infected animals. .

The disease can cause flu-like symptoms, including fever, fatigue and weight loss, according to WHO documents. It also causes damage to the bones, which in this case, the scientists initially mistaken for tuberculosis.

The bones were found in the ancient city of Butrint of Albania, once a Roman colony and an outpost of the Roman empire and abandoned in the Middle Ages due to widespread flooding.

Two skeletons, thought to belong to teenage boys from the 10th to 13th centuries, also provide valuable findings about anatomy in the vertebrae.

Researchers at Michigan State University (USA) are part of an international team of archaeologists who have excavated the area, using special technologies to analyze bone fragments through DNA forensic technology. Latest.

They sent samples to the school's DNA research lab in East Lansing, Michigan, but the TB results were negative.

So they tried a new test for Brucellosis, based on the assumption that both diseases were caused by injury to the same bone, and this time the result was positive.

'In this case, this is the result of curiosity, perseverance and of course co-operation,' said David Foran, program director of Michigan State University's Scientific Research program, in a statement. school website.

'It's great to discover something new in something that has existed for thousands of years.'