Paleopathology of Human Tuberculosis and the Potential Role of Climate
Table 1
Molecular paleoepidemiology of tuberculosis in various historic populations.
Localization (country)
Period/dating
Morpho-logically typical cases* (n)
Morpho-logically suspective cases* (n)
Molecu-larly analyzed cases (n)
TB-pos/typical + suspective cases (n)
TB-pos./insuspective cases
Abydos (Egypt)A,B,D
3000–2500 BC
2
6/189
13
2/8 (25.0%)
2/5 (40.0%)
Thebes (Egypt)B,D
2000–1600 BC
1
12/211
45
12/13 (92.3%)
1/32 (3.1%)
Thebes (Egypt)A,D
2000–500 BC
3
30/226
56
3/33 (9.1%)
0/23 (0%)
Thebes (Egypt)A,D
1600–500 BC
5
18/519
46
13/23 (56.5%)
5/23 (21.7%)
La Celle (France)E
500–1200 AD
2
9/105
11
5/11 (45.5%)
n.a.
Bacsalmas (Hungary)F;G
1600–1700 AD
12
18/480
46
12/30 (40.0%)
2/16 (12.5%)
Rain/Lech (Germany)C
1400–1800 AD
11
48/2.547
59
10/59 (17.0%)
n.a.
Sulzbürg (Germany)H
1550–1750 AD
0
0/25
25
0
3/25 (12.5%)
*: Typical TB cases and cases with macropathology that might represent mycobacterial
disease. For the morphological characteristics of “typical” and “suspective” cases see the text.
All data have been taken from own previous publications (some with recalculation in order to render
data comparable) ([5]A, [15, 16]B, [17]C, [18]D, [22]E, [23]F, [4]G, [24]H).
