TB may have caused decline of leprosy

Human remains recently found in Israel that date from the 1st Century AD suggest that tuberculosis (TB) might have killed off leprosy in Europe. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, scientists at the University College London (UCL) http://www.ucl.ac.uk have been examining a shrouded body recently discovered in a cave near Jerusalem. The man's bones reveal he was infected with both TB and leprosy. According to the scientists, TB would have won the battle of the diseases as it is the more aggressive and fast-killing of the two. The research findings appear in the latest edition of the Royal Society Proceedings B.