A probable case of leprosy from colonial period St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Southeastern Caribbean.

OBJECTIVE: To document and differentially diagnose facial pathology found in an isolated skull from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, southeastern Caribbean. To directly date this individual using radiocarbon dating.

MATERIALS: Isolated skull recovered from Petite Mustique Island.

METHODS: Describe facial pathology occurring in this individual and compare with known diseases or disease processes that impact the craniofacial complex.

RESULTS: Features of the rhinomaxillary syndrome are present, indicating a diagnosis of leprosy. Dating places the time of death to the late 18th or early 19th centuries.

CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of the rhinomaxillary syndrome produces a diagnosis of early-stage leprosy in an individual that correlates with the apparent attempt to locate a leprosarium on Petite Mustique Island in the first decade of the 19th century.

SIGNIFICANCE: Location and time corroborate historical records of at least one attempt to locate a leprosarium on Petite Mustique Island. Only directly dated individual with leprosy in the western hemisphere and possibly the earliest yet recorded.

LIMITATIONS: This is an isolated find that is archaeologically unprovenienced.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Professional archaeological survey of Petite Mustique.