Man who died 1,500 years ago may have brought leprosy strain to UK

Scientists have diagnosed strain of leprosy on man from Scandinavia who died in Essex in the fifth or early sixth century

A Scandinavian man who died 1,500 years ago in Essex suffered from leprosy, and may have been the first to bring the strain to Britain.

The diagnosis and the identification of the strain of leprosy, confirmed by scientists through a battery of tests including extraction of the DNA of the leprosy bacteria, make him the earliest known case in Britain.