PARIS: Forensic sleuths said on Thursday (Friday in Manila) they had found the oldest known egg of the bilharzia parasite, revealing how human advancement enabled a tiny freshwater worm to become a curse for millions.

In a letter published by the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, a team of archaeologists and biologists said they found a 6,200-year-old egg of the feared intestinal parasite in an ancient grave in northern Syria.

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