The oldest evidence of leprosy in India

The team consists of an anthropologist from Appalachian State University, a fellow student, an evolutionary biologist from UNC Greensboro, and a group of archaeologists from Deccan University (Pune City, India). , recently reported the results of an analysis of a bone discovered in India with evidence of leprosy. This skeleton is both the oldest archaeological evidence of human infection with Mycobacterium lepra, the first evidence of an epidemic in ancient Indian history.

The study was published in PLoS One. The contents of the study suggest that leprosy was present in India at the end of Indus Civilization (2000 years before CN) and provided information to support the hypothesis of the path of transmission of this prehistoric disease. This finding also supports the hypothesis that the Vedas Atharva wrote in Sanskrit, which was written before the first millennium BCE, is the oldest document about leprosy and that the custom of burial of the dead into heaven the second year before CN in a northwestern Indian village has some similarities with the custom of modern Hindus.

While infectious diseases are gradually being discovered, leprosy is still one of the most mysterious diseases, partly because Mycobacterium bacteria are difficult to cultivate to study, partly because the bacteria only live on the parasite. nine-banded armadillo and nine-banded armadillo. It is often assumed that the disease originated in India or Africa, based on historical facts about the spread of Asian epidemics to Europe through the army of Alexander the Great after 400 BC . Evidence of leprosy from the skeleton restricts the transmission period between 300 and 400 BC, in Egypt and Thailand.

A report of the Mycobacterium genome, published by Monot and colleagues in the magazine Sience in 2005, suggests leprosy may not have originated in Africa after the New Age, and that M. leprae bacteria spread to Africa at some point less than 40,000 years ago, when humanity lived with sparse density. A contradictory hypothesis published with the number of journals mentioned above was by Pinhasi and colleagues; they argue that such data could be evidence that the disease spread outside India at the end of the Holocence period, after major urban centers developed.

Dr. Robbins and colleagues reported a case of maple in a skeleton buried around 2000 BC in Rajasthan, India, in the Balathal region. From 3700 to 1800 before CN, Balathal was a colonial cultivation area bordering the Indus Civilization. The late period of Indus civilization during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC was a complex social phase , with the advent of urbanization, writing systems, weight units and measurements. standardization, monumental structures, and trading networks spread to Mesopotamia and beyond.

Skull. A) The front view can see lesions due to corrosion from the two sides of the upper eye area and between the eyebrows, eroding in the two sides of the nostrils, including the nasal spine from the front, necrosis from both sides of the lower eye region of the maxillary, and the loss of the maxillary region is related to tooth loss before death. B) Internal observation of the upper jaw shows pathological changes leading to palate tumors, including pits near the alveolar region. (Photo: Robbins et al., DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0005669)

The emergence of leprosy in India until the end of this period shows that M. leprae has existed in South Asia at least 4,000 years ago. This suggests that the hypothesis of Pinhasi and colleagues may be reasonable to say that the disease has spread to the region between Africa and Asia during the period of urban formation, when population density began more crowded, and often have intercontinental trade networks. Dr. Robbins is currently trying to restore ancient DNA samples from the skeleton to determine if the type of M. laprae bacteria that causes disease in a person in Balathal is the same as the popular one in Africa, Asia and Europe. now on.If successful, this may shed more light on the origin and path of spreading the disease.

Understanding more about leprosy can help clarify some common misconceptions. It is these misconceptions that involve many people suffering from leprosy being left out of the end-of-Bible and medieval urban centers. In fact, leprosy is spread only through prolonged contact with the nose or infected areas of the body. The disease is not contagious and infection can be dull for several decades. Most people infected with Mycobacterium leprae have little or even no symptoms. Because leprosy is so contagious and its existence depends on a high population density, perhaps the link between this disease and the urban environment is the only correct thing among your common knowledge. room man

The existence of Balathal leprosy 4,000 years ago also supported the translation of Eber's papyrus in Greece and a text of Sanskrit in India (Vedas of Aitharva) that referred to this disease in 1550 BC . The Atharva Vedas is a Sanskrit hymn that describes the problems of health, causes and cures in ancient Indian society. Translating paragraphs about leprosy has been a challenge because it is difficult to diagnose what is based on descriptions as in ancient texts, because in this document, symptoms are described. The disease is not to diagnose the disease. The evidence from Balathal suggests that the authors described leprosy when it was present in this prehistoric subcontinent.

Moreover, in the current custom of Hindus, burial is no longer popular unless the dead are a highly respected member of the community (an ascetic practitioner) or an individual who is unsuitable for the role. A sacrifice. These individuals include: people who are expelled from caste, pregnant women, children under 5 years old, victims of curse or magic and people with leprosy. During the second millennium BC, when Indus settlements began to disintegrate and smaller settlements flourished throughout the western half of the Indian peninsula, burial of adults became rare, primarily The results of the excavation are the bones of children under 5 years old. And the leprosy that archaeologists have collected is just one of the five components buried in the Balathal area (the rest are middle-aged women, monks from Ancient History). , and a clavicle broken into many pieces found with the leprechaun).

In addition, another characteristic of this burial is the similarity to Vedic spirit which is the burial ground. The entrained skeleton was buried in a plot of land with stone fences covered with burning ash from animal dung, the ash showed solemnity and repaired according to the ancient Indian religious tradition. Discovering the skeleton at Balathal, as well as the way the ancient people buried the weathered people, and mainly only the young bones collected from this period onwards across western India suggest that this is the time point of originating the common custom of Hinduism today.

Currently the skeleton of the leper is currently being kept at the Graduate Research Institute of Deccan University in Pune, India.