Tuberculosis in Human Bones from 4000 Years Ago, Iran
,
Abstract
Background: Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is a contagious and infectious disease; in the first stage, it destroys the lungs and in the next stage other body organs, such as the spine and long bones. This disease is transmitted through an infected person and due to the weakness of the immune system, the infection intensifies. Tuberculosis has two stages: low activity and high activity. In this article, we have discussed the signs of tuberculosis destruction with high intensity on the bones of prehistory human remains.
Methods: The examples of our research are related to human remains from the ancient cemetery of 4000 years ago from Sagezabad region of Qazvin Province of Iran. That period of history coincides with the Iron Age 2 and 3 in the region. People inside the Sagezabad cemetery were very near to early urban (the late rural) society.
Results: By matching the form of bone destruction with international atlases for tuberculosis, we have reached a satisfactory result in this article. Due to the strong penetration of the infection into the bones, destruction in the remains was high, so it has simplified the diagnosis for us.
Conclusion: We found tuberculosis among the bones. This common ancient disease existed even among Neanderthals.
2. Donoyhue H D (2011). Insights gained from paleomicrobiology into ancient and modern tuberculosis. Clin Microbiol Infect, 17(61): 821-829.
3. Morse D, Brothwell D R, Ucko P J (1964). Tuberculosis in ancient Egypt. Am Rev Respir Dis, 90: 524-541.
4. Barberis I, Bragazzi N L, Galluzzo L (2017). The history oftuberculosis: from the first historical records to the isolation of Koch’s bacillus. J Prev Med Hyg, 58(1): E9-E12.
5. Sudre P, Dam G T, Kochi A (1992). Tuber-culosis: a global over view of the situa-tion today. Bull World Health Organ, 70(2):149-59.
6. Tavaziva G, Harris M, Abidi S K (2022). Chest X-ray analysis with deep learning- based software as a triage test for pul-monary tuberculosis: an individual pa-tient data meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy. Clin Infect Dis, 74(8):1390-1400.
7. Miglior G B, Wu SJ, Mattelli A (2022). Clin-ical standards for the diagnosis, treat-ment and prevention of TB infection. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis, 26 (3): 190-205.
8. Floyd K, Glaziou P, Zumla A (2018). The global tuberculosis epidemic and pro-gress in care, prevention, and research: an overview in year 3 of the end TB era. Lancet Respir Med, 6(4): 299-314.
9. Luna L H, Aranda C M, Santos A L et al (2020). Oldest evidence of tuberculosis in Argentina: A multidisciplinary inves-tigation in an adult male skeleton from Saujil, Tinogasta, Catamarca (905-1030 CE). Tuberculosis (Edinb), 125:101995.
10. Ghodusiean T, Samadi A, Talaei H (2017). Analyzing aspects of the ancient metal-lurgy of the Qazvin plain based on the metal data discovered in Iron Age 2 graves of Segzabad cemetery. J Archaeo-logical Studies,9 (1): 167-183.
11. Tuplin C (2004). Medes in Media, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia: empire, hegemony, domination or illusion?. Ancient West & East, pp.: 223-251.
12. Summers G D (1997). The identification of the Iron Age city on Kerkenes Dag in central Anatolia. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 56 (2): 81-94.
13. Mirwaisi H F (2010). Return of the Medes: An analysis of Iranian history. Wheatmark, pp.: 49-258.
14. Aufderheide A, Rodriguez-martin C (2006). The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleo-pathology. CUP, pp.: 175-417.
15. Ortner D J (2003). Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. Smith-sonian Institution NMNH. pp.: 153-268.
16. Farhud D D, Azari M, Rahbar M (2024). Oral infections in ancient human skulls in 2000 BC/Iron age, Iran. Iran J Public Health, 53(5):1115-1127.
17. Farhud D D, Azari M, Rahbar M (2024). Tracking of infectious diseases and deadly injuries through signs observed in excavated human skeletons of 2000 BC/Iron Age in Iran. Iran J Public Health, 53(7):1598-1611.
18. Dehkordi M, Gasemian S O, Ahangaran M (2022). The relationship between some risk factors and seroconversion to bru-cellosis in Gachsaran, Iran. Journal of Zo-onotic Diseases, 6 (2): 84-90.
19. Lee O, Wu H H, Besra G S et al (2023). Sen-sitive lipid biomarker detection for tu-berculosis in late Neanderthal skeletons from Subalyuk Cave, Hungary. Tuberculosis (Edinb), 143S:102420.
20. Farhud D D, Azari M, Mehrabi A (2022). The history of corona virus, from Ne-anderthals to the present time: A Brief Review. Iran J Public Health, 51(3):531-534.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 53 No 9 (2024) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v53i9.16463 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Paleopathology Tuberculosis Ancient skeletons Human remains Neanderthal Iran | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
