The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were infested with leech , many of which causedanemiaand other debilitate conditions . According to a new meta - analysis of anterior enquiry onEgyptian mummy , around two - thirds suffered from worms of various variety , while 22 percent had malaria and 40 percentage had headlice .
In the famous Valley of the Kings , for example , four out of 16 mummies tested forPlasmodium falciparum – the microbe responsible for a deadly shape of malaria – were positive . One of these wasTutankhamun , who was found to be infected by two unlike strains though likely drop dead fromfalling from his chariotrather than as a result of malaria .
According to study author Piers D. Mitchell from the University of Cambridge , 49 of the 221 Egyptian mummies analyse for malaria test positive . “ As such , we would bear malaria to have had a major encroachment upon youngster deaths and debilitating anaemia in all ancient populations along the Nile . ”
Indeed , 92 percentage of malaria - infected mum exhibit porous bones and other signs of anemia , which is characterized by a decreased number of flushed stock cell or deplete haemoglobin stage . “ Such a disease burden must have had major upshot upon the physical stamen and productivity of a large proportion of the workforce , ” write Mitchell .
Other parasites detected in ancient Egyptian mom let in the creative thinker - altering pathogentoxoplasmosis , which has been linked to schizophrenia and , bizarrely , an increased likelihood of dying in a auto crash . “ As toxoplasmosis can be caught by humans when they are in close contact lens with true cat , it is potential that the disease occur due to the part of cat as cult animals which were often mummified and used as spiritual offerings in ancient Egypt , ” explains the author .
Mitchell also estimates that around 10 percent of mummies are positive for visceral leishmaniasis , which has also been unite to anemia and is fatal in around 95 pct of untreated case . Stomach writhe such as Pisces cestode have also been detected in two mummies and were probably caught by use up undercooked fish from the Nile .
Another character of worm known as trichiniasis was identified in the chest sinew of the mammy of an individual calledNakht , who has been place as a weaver from the royal funerary chapel at Thebes . Typically contract by eat on undercooked pork , this smutty picayune nematode encysts inside muscular tissue tissue and can cause death if it enters the heart .
Poor old Nakht was also found to be riddle with worms that infect both the blood vessels and the urinary pathway . Like 65 percent of other momma , he stomach from schistosomiasis , an acute parasitic unwellness make by worms known as blood fluke .
Anothermummyhoused at the Manchester Museum even had worms in its brain , while 40 percentage of 218 mummies psychoanalyse for headlice turn out to be overconfident .
explain this high prevalence of microscopic nasties , Mitchell suspects that “ the River Nile act as a conduit for tropical urine - hold parasite that would not normally be found in desiccated region . ” Malaria - carrying mosquitoes and other harmful pathogen could therefore have flourished in ancient Egypt despite low levels of rain .
However , as well as fetch last , the Nile may also have help oneself to fertilise agricultural fields by stick sediment during annual floods . As a result , farmers did n’t have to inseminate their crop with human tail , which may excuse why ancient Egyptian mummies show very low-down charge per unit of whipworm and ringworm , both of which were common throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean .
The study is published as a chapter in the book seriesAdvances in Parasitology .
