Though leprosy is now curable, the discovery is likely to give important clues of origin and transmission of the disease and may even potentially lead to new insights about the evolution of infectious diseases and eradication efforts. Recent genomics research indicated that an African origin of the disease was possible but did not rule out the possibility of an Indian origin. Robbins is now working on extracting DNA from the skeleton, which she feels would be able to shed further light on this question. According to her, this skeleton demonstrates that the disease was present during a period of increasing urbanisation in India and Pakistan, supporting the long-held association among leprosy and urban life and suggesting that this is the most likely period for the transmission of the disease in West Asia and Africa. Finally, it also supports the hypothesis that leprosy spread to Europe with the return of Alexander’s Army from India in the 4th century BC. Balathal sits on the margin of the Indus civilisation and presumably the site was affected by participation in the Third Millennium Interaction Sphere, in which the Indus civilisation traded with Mesopotamia and Egypt. Leprosy may have been transmitted during that time, says Robbins.

The discovery shows that the disease was known to the Indus peoples. “They definitely treated individuals who had leprosy as different from others as there were only five individuals buried at the site—an individual in samhadi posture (from the Early Historic period), two women, and a fragmentary individual buried with the leper who was represented only by two bones. The leper skeleton was buried in cow dung ash and was one of the few adults buried at the site. The skeleton is giving us insights into which diseases were known to the Indus people and traditions surrounding burial and disease, as well as possibly indicating a special significance to cow dung ash,” says Robbins.

... contd.