Egyptian mummy's horrifying fate changes everything experts knew about disease
The scientific name for the infection, Yersinia pestis, wiped out vast swathes of Europe but this new finding means scientists have developed a deeper understanding of the disease in North Africa
The unearthing of an ancient Egyptian mummy has revealed a terrifying bubonic plague that wreaked havoc on humanity before the infamous Black Death swept across Europe.
This oldest confirmed case of the disease indicates the bubonic plague was present in North Africa thousands of years prior to the Black Death's reign.
The infection, scientifically known as Yersinia pestis, decimated large portions of Europe, but this new discovery has allowed scientists to gain a deeper understanding of the disease's presence in North Africa and its gradual global spread, according to The Sun.
Recent studies have identified traces of Yersinia pestis DNA in prehistoric bodies, suggesting the pathogen existed and circulated thousands of years before the historic pandemic. However, until this latest discovery, all ancient examples were from Europe and Asia, with some evidence of infection found in 5,000 year old skeletons in Russia.
Now, the ancient Egyptian mummy housed at the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy, has unveiled that the plague was also prevalent in North Africa at the start of the Bronze Age, reports <a href="https://www.themirror.com/news/weird-news/horrifying-fate-egyptian-mummy-discovered-1202119" rel="Follow" target="_self">the Mirror US</a>.
Both the bone tissue and intestines of the mummy contained traces of Yersinia pestis DNA, indicating that the ancient plague had reached advanced stages when the individual died.
Researchers for the study said: "This is the first reported prehistoric Y pestis genome outside Eurasia providing molecular evidence for the presence of plague in ancient Egypt, although we cannot infer how widespread the disease was during this time."
Previous research had hinted at potential outbreaks along the river Nile in ancient Egypt. Two decades ago, experts unearthed fleas - the primary carriers of the plague - at an archaeological site in Amarna, where the workers who constructed Tutankhamun's tomb resided.
Given that fleas were the main carriers of the plague, experts began to speculate that the disease might have been present in ancient Egypt.
Indeed, a 3,500 year old medical document known as the Ebers Papyrus described a disease at the time that "produced a bubo, and the pus has petrified".
Some scientists believe the disease originated from fleas living on Nile rats, which then transferred to the black rats that travelled on ancient ships, thereby spreading the dreaded Black Death worldwide.
However, prior to this latest discovery, there was little evidence to support this theory. Alarmingly, the bubonic plague has not been entirely eradicated, with a case reported in the US last year.
Officials in Pueblo County, Colorado, confirmed in July that a case of plague had been identified in one individual.
The CDC has reported that there were 67 confirmed cases of plague in Colorado between 1970 and 2022. The World Health Organisation recorded 3,248 instances of the human plague worldwide between 2010 and 2015, with the majority of cases occurring in Madagascar, Peru, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
