The discovery that destroys all myths. ROMANS spread an infectious disease known as MORTAL all over the world

A new study followed the evolution of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis that causes tuberculosis, an extremely dangerous infectious disease, known as TB, that will help scientists explain the spread of the disease in Africa, later in the barracks and baths of the Roman Empire.

The study of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that when Rome became a superpower in the Mediterranean, at least one variety of TB pathogens could travel across the entire space Controlled by the Romans, according to descopera.ro

The effects of this disease are catastrophic, especially since it is an infectious disease (transmitted from one person to the other).

To understand how this disease spreads for future battles with this disease, a look into the past is beneficial. The team of American researchers has made some interesting discoveries.

"What I wanted to do was give a historical background to the genomic data," said Caitlin Pepperell, an author of the study.

Up to now, seven varieties of tuberculosis have been identified worldwide, all related to a human disease that occurred several decades ago in Africa.

Genomic data from the new study come from more than 550 samples of TB bacteria from modern populations in Africa, Asia and Europe, forming a tree of bacterial varieties. Scientists have learned that the last time they were forming a large family was now 4,000 to 6,000 years old. In addition, although three of the seven varieties did not spread too much, the rest were.

Branch data is aligned with the significant events of the fall and rise of civilizations, a variety entering a major expansion in the first century BCE.

"The period corresponds to the Roman expansion and exploration around the Mediterranean," Pepperell said. "There have been contacts between human populations that did not exist before."

The same pattern was also noticed by another team of researchers who studied a variety of Chinese tuberculosis, showing that the date of its spread corresponded to the date of rice cultivation in the region 6,600 years ago.