FLORENCE, ITALY—Evidence of the parasite that causes a virulent type of malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) has been detected in a 500-year-old organ stored in a terracotta jar bearing the Medici family crest by researchers led by Albert Zink of Italy’s Institute for Mummy Studies, according to a Live Science report. Zink and his colleagues were working to match organs in the Medici jars with skeletal remains in Medici coffins buried in Florence’s San Lorenzo Basilica when they saw the parasites on preserved red blood cells from one of the individuals. The parasite would have produced a severe, relapsing fever, but it is not clear if the person was killed by the disease. Zink added, however, that not enough DNA was preserved to compare the parasite to living specimens. It is possible that a Medici family member was bitten by a malaria-bearing mosquito while hunting in the marshlands of Florence. “This is clear proof of something that was suspected but never really shown in that way,” Zink said. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Emerging Infectious Diseases. To read about the tomb of a Medici warrior, go to "Medici Mystery."
