Leprosy is much less common today than it was during the Middle Ages, but the bacterium that causes this debilitating disease has hardly changed since then, a new study finds. Researchers sequenced ...

In medieval Denmark, people could pay for more prestigious graves closer to the church — a sign of wealth and status. But when researchers examined hundreds of skeletons, they discovered something ...

A woodcut from the 1800s, Healing the Lepers, depicts the common tableau of Jesus healing a leper as his disciples look on. Look through a series of 15th-century woodcuts, and you'll find that the ...

Leprosy has been long gone from Great Britain. Or so we thought. Medieval Leprosy Lurks In British Squirrels People and leprosy go way back. Way, way back. "It's been around for at least 5,000 years ...

Medieval residents of Winchester, England, probably got their leprosy from red squirrels in the area, according to a team of archaeologists and geneticists that studied remains from two archaeological ...

Scientists have reconstructed a dozen medieval and modern leprosy genomes -- suggesting a European origin for the North American leprosy strains found in armadillos and humans, and a common ancestor ...

DNA extracted from the skull of this leprosy victim, identified in the study as Jorgen_625, was used to sequence the genome of the medieval. Jorgen_625 lived in ...

Laura holds a Master's in Experimental Neuroscience and a Bachelor's in Biology from Imperial College London. Her areas of expertise include health, medicine, psychology, and neuroscience. Laura holds ...

Leprosy didn't prevent rich medieval families from being buried in the most prestigious graves, reveals new research. Wealthy Danes showed off their affluence even in death by being laid to rest ...

(CNN) — Leprosy was thought to have been eradicated from the UK for centuries — until now. It turns out the disease has been harbored, perhaps since the Middle Ages, in red squirrels in the British ...

People and leprosy go way back. Way, way back. "It's been around for at least 5,000 years and probably longer," says Stewart Cole, who directs the Global Health Institute at the Swiss Federal ...