The Plague of Athens Identified

Via ProMED-mail: the BBC and others report on DNA analysis of dental pulp from an ancient graveyard. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi was found, indicating death by typhoid fever:

The team said in their research: "For an infectious disease to be considered as a likely cause of the Plague of Athens, it must, above all have existed at that time.
"Infectious diarrhoeas and dysentery as described by the ancients, imply that typhoid fever was an endemic problem in the ancient world."
The team added that it was the first time microbiological evidence associated with the plague had been analysed.
Previously assumptions about the cause had been based on the narrations of a the 5th Century Greek historian Thucydides.
Earlier research rejected the idea that typhoid caused the plague because of the symptoms described by Thucydides did not fit with the modern day typhoid.
But the researchers said inconsistencies [may be] explained by the possible evolution of typhoid fever over time.

The researchers also checked for typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii), a better match for the symptoms, without result.