Many of the parasites we see today have been around for centuries. One of our goals in infectious disease studies is to understand where in the world people had these parasites in the past and how their epidemiology has changed through time, explains Marissa Ledger, a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster's Ancient DNA Centre and the lead researcher on the project.
The latrine was associated with the Spanish nation house, the administrative center and meeting place for the Castilian merchant community in Bruges. Researchers suggest the parasite could be linked to one of these traders, who facilitated the import of African commodities like gold, ivory, and spices.
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