9,000 years old

TB victim remains, 9,000 years old, re-write history of disease

The discovery of two nine thousand year old tuberculosis victims demolishes the conventional wisdom that humans caught the disease from cows, claims a new study.

The remains were found in a now submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Israel
Scientists have traditionally believed that tuberculosis was caught from the infected milk of cattle at a time when humans first started domesticating animals around six thousand years go.But the discovery of two much older victims - a mother and a child - finally proves that the human strain most likely existed before its bovine equivalent.It is hoped the findings reported in the Public Library of Science One journal, will help scientists trace the route of the disease which still kills thousands of people every year.
"What this shows is that it was not animals that infected humans, it was humans infecting humans," said Dr Helen Donoghue, from University College London
"This suggests that it was the coming together of humans into settlements rather than the domestication of animals that led to the disease spreading."
The mother and child were discovered underwater in the remains of a Neolithic village, now submerged by the sea off the coast of Haifa, in Israel.

(source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/15/scitb115.xml)