A ground-breaking recent leprosy research study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology used the fragments of a skull found on an uninhabited Caribbean island called Petite Musique to reveal more about this Biblical disease. Using radiocarbon dating, the study proved the existence of leprosy in the Caribbean roughly 200 years ago. What makes this find particularly unique is that the skull is only one of a handful of examples of leprosy identified on a skeleton in the Western Hemisphere, writes Phys. The Caribbean leprosy skull was first discovered in 2003.
A Brief History of Leprosy
The team, led by University of Oregon Professor Scott M. Fitzpatrick, noted how they deviated from the norm by assessing the skull itself, rather than estimating age using nearby artifacts and materials. Leprosy has been an elusive subject in the Caribbean and documentation of the disease only began in the mid-17th century AD. Until now the evidence of leprosy in the region was minimal, with scant skeletal evidence to show a pattern or a spread in the disease.
Some historical records suggest a leprosarium, isolationist, hospital-like spaces where lepers were exiled from society to prevent the spread of the lethal disease, existed in the region in the early 1800s.
