Could mummies hold link to cures for human diseases?

Scientists from around the world are studying 45 mummies on display in the United States.

These relics of the past are providing researchers with information that could help control the spread of deadly diseases.

Most people associate mummies with ancient Egypt and pyramids, but mummies have also been discovered in other places including South America, Europe and Asia.

America Now caught up with an exhibition of "Mummies of the World" at Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC.

In one of the dimly-lit rooms, we observed an Egyptian priest buried in an intricately painted sarcophagus. Other mummies in the exhibition were simply wrapped in cloth.

Anthropologist Heather Gill-Frerking has been unraveling the mystery of mummies for 20 years. She says inside every mummy is a story waiting to be told.

"They are talking to me through their physical remains," Gill-Frerking said.

One of the mummies in the exhibition includes a Peruvian child that has been extremely well-preserved.

Using radiocarbon dating, scientists say he is 6,420-years-old which is about 3,000 years before the birth of King Tut.

"His heart and lungs are so well preserved that we could see he had a congenital heart condition and lung infection, and that's probably what contributed to his death," said Gill-Frerking.

Some of the mummies are from the 17th century and were found in a castle in southern Germany.

Scientists use a variety of high-tech instruments like Computed Tomography (CT) scans to analyze these mummies. The information they obtained by studying these mummies could be used to find cures to diseases common today.

The exhibition also includes a family of mummies from the 18th century that were discovered in a long-forgotten church crypt in Hungary.

The father, mother and child are believed to have died in the 1800's from the White Plague, which is now known as Tuberculosis or TB.

Tuberculosis isn't a relic of the past. It's growing.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as recent as 2010, there were 11,102 TB cases reported in the US.

More than 500 people die each year from TB in the US. Four states--California, Texas, New York and Florida--account for nearly half of all cases.

TB is also evolving in some places. There's now drug-resistant strains of Tuberculosis which is why scientists say studying these mummies is even more important to our health.

"If we know how the disease progressed, we can see how it's going to maybe progress with us," said Gill-Frerking. "Using the modern technology today, just gives us an understanding of the past in a way we can't do it any other way."


In addition to providing an evolutionary look at TB and other diseases, mummies are also providing researchers with information about the impact of dietary and environmental changes on human beings around the world.

"This is a chance to see death face-to-face, and seeing it on a level that helps us understand that life in the past is just as valuable and precious as life today," Gill-Frerking said.

The "Mummies of the World: The Exhibition" will be traveling to seven cities in the US before the tour ends in July 2013.