AI Generated Image
‘This Is Very Strange’: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly
The New York Times • • health
Key Points:
- Smallpox, once the deadliest disease with an estimated 300 million deaths in the 20th century, was eradicated in the 1970s but remains a concern due to fears of its use as a biological weapon.
- Recent genetic research has uncovered ancient smallpox DNA in 500-year-old skeletons from Chile, marking the first discovery of such genomes in the Americas.
- These findings suggest smallpox may have started as a milder infection that evolved over centuries into the deadly virus known today.
- Scientists continue to investigate the origins of smallpox, with the consensus that it jumped to humans from another species, though the exact precursor virus remains unidentified.
- The study of ancient smallpox DNA offers new insights into the virus’s evolutionary history, challenging previous assumptions about its development and impact on humanity.
