Historians have for a long time believed that leprosy was introduced to the Americas by European settlers, but the latest research offers strong evidence to the contrary – suggesting that Indigenous Americans had already been dying of the disease for centuries.
The primary cause of leprosy is a bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae, and the researchers still think this was introduced to America by Europeans. However, it seems a lesser-known culprit was already established by that time.
A new study from an international team of researchers found that another bacterium, Mycobacterium lepromatosis – a less common cause of leprosy infection – was present in the DNA of ancient human remains from Canada and Argentina dating back at least a thousand years.
“This discovery transforms our understanding of the history…