DNA reveals Romans helped spread TB across three continents

The Romans gave us roads, public toilets and the modern calendar, but we may also have them to thank for spreading a deadly disease: tuberculosis.

A genetic analysis suggests that while TB first arose about 5000 years ago in Africa, the Roman Empire was behind its more recent, rapid spread around Europe and beyond.

TB is a lung infection that, if left untreated, can cause a chronic cough, weight loss and a lingering death. By some estimates the bacterium that causes it, Mycobacterium…