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Study: Seals Infected Early Americans With Tuberculosis
mdsolar writes that a study suggests that tuberculosis first appeared in the New World less than 6,000 years ago and it was brought here by seals. After a remarkable analysis of bacterial DNA from 1,000-year-old mummies, scientists have proposed a new hypothesis for how tuberculosis arose and spread around the world. The disease originated less than 6,000 years ago in Africa, they say, and took a surprising route to reach the New World: it was carried across the Atlantic by seals. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, has already provoked strong reactions from other scientists. "This is a landmark paper that challenges our previous ideas about the origins of tuberculosis," said Terry Brown, a professor of biomolecular archaeology at the University of Manchester. "At the moment, I'm still in the astonished stage over this."
You have forgotten the worst illness of all. Homo Sapiens. Its a parasite when it lives in its home, and tries not to destroy it. Its an illness when it lives without even caring for anything except for itself, not even recognizing the long term disadvantage it can endure by heavily damaging its host. Lets hope the illness becomes a parasite, and don't kill itself by phenomena called "third world war".