Ancient parasite suggests human technology contributed to spread of diseases

The discovery of a schistosomiasis parasite egg in a 6,200-year-old grave at a prehistoric town by the Euphrates River in Syria may be the first evidence that agricultural irrigation systems in the Middle East contributed to disease burden. The research from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, the University of Cambridge and the Cyprus Institute appears in the new edition of The Lancet Infectious Diseases . Schistosomiasis is a disease caused by several species of flatworm parasites that live in the blood vessels of the bladder and intestines. Infection can result in anaemia, kidney failure and bladder cancer. This research shows it may have been spread by the introduction of crop irrigation in ancient Mesopotamia, the region along the Tigris-Euphrates river system that covers parts of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey. The discovery might be among the oldest evidence of man-made technology inadvertently causing disease outbreaks, according to Piers Mitchell at Cambridge, one of the paper's authors. "The individual who contracted the parasite might have done so through the use of irrigation systems that were starting to be introduced in Mesopotamia around 7,500 years ago.