Paget's Disease: Another Paramyxovirus in the Archaeological Record

Authors

  • Laura Yvette Gorczynski

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15173/nexus.v12i1.150

Abstract

The etiology of many human diseases remain unknown. There is often a tendency to imagine that insight into this area can only come from systematic scientific investigation into contemporary societies. However, there is often a wealth of data available in more distant records, including palaeopathological evidence, which, if considered in a critical manner, may provide clues not accessible in any other way. An example of this line of reasoning is provided in the discussion below, with particular reference to a disease of bone mineralization called Paget's disease. While there are a number of known causes of defects in bone mineralization, contemporary thought speculates that this particular disorder may be associated with chronic infection caused by a virus related to the paramyxovirus family. Palaeopathology, it will be argued, can provide an extraordinarily powerful tool, making testable predictions which may help resolve the issue of the possible infectious etiology of this disorder in a manner not easily approachable by other means. The value of this approach, in comparison with more (modern) sophisticated technologies such as probing for evidence of DNA sequences in Paget's bone with homology to paramyxovirus DNA sequences, is also considered.

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Published

1996-01-01

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Section

Articles