Infectious Disease Blog

Lice found in the hair of mummies dug up in Peru prove that Christopher Columbus didn’t bring the little buggers to America with him, according to an international group of researchers.

Researchers extracted DNA from lice found in two mummies and found that lice, which are parasites, probably came to America as early as 15,000 years ago, according to the New York Times. That means that this particular type of louse latched onto humans during their first migration out of Africa. This type of louse is the most common to exist in the modern-day world.

While this proves that Columbus, who sailed the ocean blue in 1492, didn’t bring lice to the Americas, he and his shipmates may have introduced diseases – smallpox and measles – as previously suspected.

The New York Times article also discussed the larger implications of the study:

“Of possibly more importance, evolutionary biologists say, studying parasites may become a valuable new tool in scientific efforts to understand human migrations and the spread of disease. Lice have been found on Egyptian mummies, for example, but they have yet to undergo genetic examination.”

An article from National Geographic went further to say that the presence of this type of louse in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans may suggest that epidemic typhus – a louse-borne disease – may have originated in the New World.

David Reed, one of the study’s authors, told National Geographic:

“This might be one of the few diseases that went against the grain of colonization and spread from the New World back to the Old World,” he said.

The study was published online Wednesday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. You can read the abstract here.

Imagine feeling crawling, biting and stinging sensations on your skin. Colored threads and worms crawling out of eyeballs are also part of the ensuing creepiness.

Can there really be a disease with the symptoms described above? The answer is a disputed yes. Morgellons Disease is the name given to what the CDC calls “unexplained dermopathy.”

The cause of this unexplained skin condition is unknown. Researchers do not have enough information to know if these patients share similar risk factors.

Thanks to a post I read on About.com’s Infectious Disease blog, I found out the CDC announced last week that it is conducting epidemiological studies about the illness.

The goals of the CDC’s investigation is to learn more about:

“… who may be affected with this condition, the symptoms they experience, and to generate hypotheses about factors that may contribute to it.”

If you or someone you know has symptoms like the ones described above, please contact the CDC.