Previously, the earliest widely accepted evidence for leprosy was in Asian texts dated 600 B.C. Now, scientific analysis of an ancient male skeleton has revealed signs of leprosy infection and indicated that leprosy was present in India in 2000 B.C. The presence and patterning of lesions in the skeleton allowed a differential diagnosis for leprosy. These results represent the oldest documented skeletal evidence for the disease. Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae that still today affects almost 250,000 people worldwide. The timing of first infection, the geographic origin, and the pattern of transmission of the disease are still under investigation. Comparative genomics research has suggested that M. leprae evolved either in East Africa or South Asia during the Late Pleistocene period before spreading to Europe and the rest of the World. The current work was published on May 27 in PLoS One. [PLoS One article]Login Or Register To Read Full Story