ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with various infectious diseases that may produce skeletal lesions. Such diseases have had a major impact on human societies across time; they may be caused by various pathogens, and can be transmitted between individuals, from animals to humans, through the ingestion of contaminated food or water, or via exposure to pathogens present in the environment. This chapter will focus primarily on infections of non-specific origin (periostitis/periostosis, osteomyelitis, sinusitis, septic arthritis), as well as bacterial infections (tuberculosis, brucellosis, Hansen’s disease, treponemal disease), which have been more commonly reported in the palaeopathological record. Among the conditions that can be caused by other groups of pathogens, smallpox and poliomyelitis are presented, as viral infections, and malaria, as a parasitic infection.
