Current clinical data show a clear relationship between the zoonosis rates of Diphyllobothrium pacificum and Anisakis caused by the El Niño Southern Oscillations (ENSO) phenomenon along the Chilean coast. These parasites are endemic to the region and have a specific habitat distribution. D. pacificum prefers the warmer waters in the northern coast, while Anisakis prefers the colder waters of Southern Chile. The ENSO phenomenon causes a drastic inversion in the seawater temperatures in this region, modifying both the cool nutrient-rich seawater and the local ecology. This causes a latitudinal shift in marine parasite distribution and prevalence, as well as drastic environmental changes. The abundance of human mummies and archaeological coastal sites in the Atacama Desert provides an excellent model to test the ENSO impact on antiquity. We review the clinical and archaeological literature debating to what extent these parasites affected the health of the Chinchorros, the earliest settlers of this region. We hypothesise the Chinchorro and their descendants were affected by this natural and cyclical ENSO phenomenon and should therefore present fluctuating rates of D. pacificum and Anisakis infestations.

Two small mummy bundles, found in a tomb at the Chillon River Valley, Lima Plains, Peru exist in the collections of the Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They were donated to the collections at the beginning of the 20th century. A multidisciplinary team is now curating and studying them. CT scans confirmed both skeletons were of individuals less than one year old at death. One of the bundles is intact and will be preserved and displayed. The other one was partly decomposed and the authors received permission to unwrap it to analyze the bones in details. Mites and pollen analysis were performed and the bones and artifacts were described. The cranium of a four to six month-old child, had a perforated necrotic occipital bone that possibly related to cause of death. Endosteal new bone reaction, a flattened area at the occipital squamae and a parietal sulcus associated with a zone of frontparietal resorption were also found. A pathognomonic periosteal reaction at the occipital and parietals, along the lambdoid suture, pointed to the compression of the skull that could explain the trauma, ischemic necrosis and subsequent infection. The cultural context suggests that the bundle could belong to a late Inca burial.

Dos fardos de infantes hallados en una tumba en el valle del Río Chillón (Lima, Perú) fueron incorporados a la colección del Museo Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, a comienzos del siglo XX. Actualmente, un equipo multidisciplinario está encargado de la curaduría y del estudio de los fardos. El análisis realizado por tomografía computadorizada confirmó que ambos esqueletos tienen menos de un año de edad. Uno de los fardos está intacto y será preservado y exhibido. El otro estaba parcialmente deteriorado y se obtuvo permiso para desenfardarlo y hacer el análisis de los huesos. Se realizó análisis de ácaros y de polen, además de la descripción de los huesos y de los artefactos. El cráneo presentó una perforación necrosada en el occipital, interpretada como la posible causa de muerte. Se observó también una reacción endosteal de hueso nuevo, un área allanada en la escama occipital y un surco en el parietal asociado a una zona de reabsorción frontoparietal. Una reacción patognomónica del periostio en el occipital y en los parietales a lo largo de la sutura lambdoide apuntan a una compresión del cráneo, lo que podría explicar el trauma, la necrosis isquémica y la subsiguiente infección. El contexto cultural sugiere que el fardo pertenecería a un enterratorio de época incaica.

Parasitism was a universal human condition. Because of this, people developed herbal medicines to treat parasites as part of their pharmacopoeias. We propose that it is possible to recover evidence of medicinal plants from archaeological sites and link their use to specific health conditions. This is a multidisciplinary approach that must involve at least paleoethnobotanists, archaeoparasitologists, paleopathologists, and pharmacologists.

A molecular paleoparasitological diagnostic approach was developed for Enterobius vermicularis. Ancient DNA was extracted from 27 coprolites from archaeological sites in Chile and USA. Enzymatic amplification of human mtDNA sequences confirmed the human origin. We designed primers specific to the E. vermicularis 5S ribosomal RNA spacer region and they allowed reproducible polymerase chain reaction identification of ancient material. We suggested that the paleoparasitological microscopic identification could accompany molecular diagnosis, which also opens the possibility of sequence analysis to understand parasite-host evolution.

The excavations of Chiribaya culture sites in the Osmore drainage of southern Peru focused on the recovery of information about prehistoric disease, including parasitism. The archaeologists excavated human, dog, guinea pig, and llama mummies. These mummies were analyzed for internal and external parasites. The results of the analysis and reconstruction of prehistoric life from the excavations allows us to interpret the pathoecology of the Chiribaya culture.

Assessing the impact of cultural change on parasitism has been a central goal in archaeoparasitology. The influence of civilization and the development of empires on parasitism has not been evaluated. Presented here is a preliminary analysis of the change in human parasitism associated with the Inca conquest of the Lluta Valley in Northern Chile. Changes in parasite prevalence are described. It can be seen that the change in life imposed on the inhabitants of the Lluta Valley by the Incas caused an increase in parasitism.

Paleoparasitology has advance during the past decade to the status of a statistically based science focused on problems of disease ecology and geographic distribution of parasitism. For most of its development, paleoparasitology has focused on the analysis of coprolites and latrine sediments. During the past few years, mummies have been increasingly included in paleoparasitology studies. We evaluate in this paper the interpretive value of mummies relative to other sources of paleoparasitological data

El estudio de la paleoparasitología ha logrado transformarse, en esta última década, en una ciencia basada en la estadística, enfocada a temas tales como la ecología de enfermedades y la distribución geográfica parasítica. Los primeros estudios se basaron en el análisis de coprolitos y sedimentos letrinos. Ultimamente, se ha incorporado restos humanos momificados en los estudios paleoparasitologicos. En este trabajo, se analiza el valor interpretativo de este tipo de muestra en relación a otras fuentes de información paleoparasitológica