Description
Infectious diseases are pathological conditions caused by microorganisms which may interfere with the working of the body’s cells, destroy tissues, or produce poisonous substances. These diseases can be frustrating for scientists because they rarely leave behind direct anatomical evidence, and when they do, they tend to produce overlapping responses in skeletal tissue. However, there are some infectious diseases that do leave behind evidence of their existence in skeletal remains, and anthropologists are interested in studying them because they are important in terms of microevolutionary processes and immune responses.
