[newest_user_]

I haven't read the original article to see if they address your question -- but generally a trained expert can tell if a disease ravaged someone by markers left of their skeletal system (increased iron deposits, lack of calcium, etc.)

Knowing that, if we wanted to test the hypothesis that it was a disease then we would expect to see those markers on either a majority of males or we would see an equal distribution with the male skeletons trending younger then female ones. After the disease passed (like black death did) we would see male average life spans increase and a decrease in the disease markers.