Did West Nile Conquer Alexander the Great?
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 17 (HealthDayNews) — For more than 2,300 years, historians have been trying to diagnose the mystery illness that struck down Alexander the Great, one of most powerful men of all time. The long list of suspects includes poison, plague, polio and typhoid fever. Now, armed with a computerized analysis of ancient clues, researchers are blaming a seemingly modern malady — the West Nile virus. Alexander’s symptoms closely match those caused by West Nile, and the researchers think it’s possible the disease has existed in the Middle East for millennia. The possible clincher in the case, however, has more to do with man’s feathered friends than the general’s medical history. Contemporary accounts report that ravens flew into Babylon and died at Alexander’s feet before his own death. West Nile disease, which became famous only after it hit New York City in 1999, also strikes birds, especially crows and jays — and ravens. To two professors, this spells a solution to the Alexand
