The following is an edited excerpt.
By the turn of the 16th century, after the crusades had swept across Europe, leprosy mysteriously disappeared. And it never returned
This left scientists puzzled. Did the bacteria mutate to become less harmful, or did Europeans become resistant to the germs?
To answer this question, a team of biologists and archaeologists probed the mass grave of a 600-year-old leper colony for traces of ancient leprosy DNA. They found leprosy didn’t change, we did.
Read the full story here: Scientists Go Medieval To Solve Ancient Leprosy Puzzle