Mummies arise to help battle tuberculosis

Mummies found in Hungary could help fight
tuberculosis

Medical cures are often found in the strangest places. Point in case: In Hungary, an army of mummies – 265 naturally preserved creatures from the past – are helping local scientists find new ways to fight tuberculosis.
Buried between 1731 and 1838 in the crypt of a Dominican church in the town of Vac, the mummies were discovered during 1994 renovations at the church.
The mummified bodies reportedly include surgeons, three nuns, 30 priests and the wife and child of the local postmaster. It's hoped that these ancient creatures, now resting in cardboard boxes at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, could help cure tuberculosis.
Test results revealed that a shocking 89 percent of the mummies, from babies to over 65 years of age, were infected with tuberculosis. Around 35 percent died from the deadly disease.
"What was probably the most exciting and most comprehensive study was the one about tuberculosis. In some of the individuals, the traces of the mutations on the bones caused by tuberculosis are evident to the naked eye," Idilko Pap, head of the Department of Anthropology of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, told The Associated Press. “So we thought it would be worthwhile to study not only the individuals on whose body the traces of tuberculosis mutations can be seen, but the others as well.”
Strains of tuberculosis found in the mummies will enable scientists to study tuberculosis pathogens dating back to the days before the development of antibiotics, and prior to the disease becoming widespread during the Industrial Revolution.
"Their immune system was likely better than ours. If we could locate some gene sections and discover why they were more resistant to tuberculosis than us, than that could be of great assistance to modern medical science," Pap said.
Nearly 1.5 million people died of tuberculosis in 2010, and some 9 million new cases were reported, according to statistics released by the World Health Organisation.
The mummy-related tuberculosis studies are being conducted in cooperation with experts from University College London and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.