tl;dr; - Scientists did DNA testing on the remains of the Grand Duke and his wife, and found malaria. The rival theory is poisoning by the relative who was next in line for the Ducal throne. HOWEVER, this test result solves nothing:

> But is there any guarantee that Francesco was not also poisoned?

> “Perhaps not,” Ochoa said, “but the genetic evidence presented in our study decreases the margin for speculation.”

> Gisella Caccone, a senior research scientist also at Yale and a study coauthor, agrees. “We can say that they had malaria, we cannot say that they were not poisoned as well,” Caccone said in an email.

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shermantanktop 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Maybe they were poisoned, had malaria, were stabbed, and also suffocated and drowned, all at the same time?

"solves" is a silly thing to ask for in matters of probability. I think this test result adds data which shifts probabilities, and that's the best we'll get.

	▲	themgt 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe they were poisoned, had malaria, were stabbed, and also suffocated and drowned, all at the same time? Just now learning Grigori Rasputin died of malaria.

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senshan 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Right. If one lives in an area prone to malaria, has good immune system, will the body tend to carry the antibodies all the time?

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colingauvin 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, which is why the immunological tests done in 2006 were not seen as conclusive. However, this time they found actual plasmodium DNA which suggests active infection at time of death. Including from two species, suggesting double infection. Fun.

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prmph 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I live in Ghana, we have malaria as a common (not too common though) ailment. I have also had malaria several times, though the last time was almost 9 years ago.

As I understand it, some malaria parasites can remain dormant in the body for a long time. Clinical symptoms develop once the parasite burden and immune response become sufficient to cause illness.

Not sure if the couple had made trips to Tuscany before the last one, but it is interesting they found two species of malaria pathogens.

I thought that was also an interesting angle to consider.

	▲	toyg 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Not sure if the couple had made trips to Tuscany before Dude, they were the royal family of Tuscany. They lived there. Which is why this test is not conclusive: sure, they had malaria, but at the time it was pretty common in the region and they likely had it for a long time.

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senshan 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Interesting. Little brother brought a new version of malaria to try...

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bell-cot 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The pedantic answer is "yes".

The pragmatic answer is "if only it was that easy" -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria#Immune_system_evasion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Global_malaria_deaths_201...