Enteric fever

Skull of a soldier from Napoleon's army, next to a button the size of the soldier. Credit: Michel Signoli, Aix-Marseille Université

DNA from Napoleon's armies identifies pathogens that may explain the high mortality of soldiers on the return journey from Russia in 1812

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Researchers extracted and sequenced DNA from the teeth of thirteen soldiers from a mass grave in Vilnius, Lithuania, on the route of retreat from France to Russia. After removing environmental contaminants, DNA fragments from pathogenic bacteria were identified: not typhus, but
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