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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060
EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 101, No. s2, 2006, pp. 53-56
Bioline Code: oc06228
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 101, No. s2, 2006, pp. 53-56

 en Parasitism in Kansas in the 1800s A glimpse to the past through the analysis of grave sediments from Meadowlark cemetery
Matthieu Le Bailly; Marcelo LC Gonçalves; Christine Lefèvre; Donna C Roper; Jeremy W Pye; Adauto Araujo & Françoise Bouchet

Abstract

During the excavations of the XIX century Meadowlark cemetery (Manhattan, Kansas, US), samples of sediments were taken from around five skeletons, and analyzed to detect intestinal parasites. No helminth eggs were found, but immunological ELISA tests for Entamoeba histolytica were positive in three samples. The immunological techniques have been successfully used in paleoparasitology to detect protozoan infections. Amoebiasis could have been a severe disease in the past, especially where poor sanitary conditions prevailed, and there is evidence that this cemetery may have been used in a situation where poor sanitary conditions may have prevailed. The presence of this protozoan in US during the late XIX century gives information on the health of the population and provides additional data on the parasite's evolution since its appearance in the New World.

Keywords
paleoparasitology - ancient diseases - paleoepidemiology - protozoal infection - amoebiasis

 
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