Leprosy in a Lombard-Avar cemetery in central Italy (Campochiaro, Molise, 6th–8th century AD): ancient DNA evidence and demography

Abstract

This study shows that, in the historical population with leprosy, the risk factors for health seem to be constant and distributed across all age classes, similar to what is found today in the antibiotic era. There were no peaks of mortality equivalent to those found in fatal diseases such as the plague, probably due to the long clinical course of leprosy.