Bishop Peder Winstrup died in what is now Sweden in 1679 CE, when tuberculosis (TB) was ravaging Europe. His body was placed in a cool, dry crypt, and lay untouched for nearly 250 years. When the crypt was first opened in 1923, scientists were surprised to discover that Bishop Winstrup had become mummified, with his clothes and hair perfectly intact. Now, researchers have used his well-preserved lungs, damaged by TB, to understand when this deadly disease began infecting humans.
Historians and scientists alike are very familiar with TB. Based on 2019 data from the World Health Organization, it is the deadliest infectious disease affecting humans, infecting over 10 million people and killing over 1.4 million each year. Skeletal evidence and written records of TB date back over 3,000 years. Around the year 1805, the disease killed one in four people in London.
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