Scientists at the University of Otago have discovered the secret of the spread of a dangerous infectious disease called frambezia caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum.
It is reported in the journal Bioarcheology International.
Researchers have analyzed ancient human remains found during excavations at the Man Bakvo archeological site in Vietnam's Ninh Binh province. Signs of a disease that causes permanent bone damage have been found in four-thousand-year-old skeletons. Until now, there was no evidence of framesia in ancient Asia.
Scientists believe that the disease has spread with the development of agriculture. Farmers in modern-day China moved south, and the disease spread to tribes from Africa to Asia and later to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Australia.
The disease, which mainly affects children, is transmitted by contact and causes severe damage to the skin.
Although Frambesia has been neutralized in most parts of the world, about 30,000 people in the West Pacific are affected by the disease.