smallpox is a very ancient infectious disease probably needs to be reviewed. Scientists who discovered the deadly virus in a child mummy of the 17th century in Lithuania and studied, they concluded that the disease is probably in the hundreds rather than thousands of years old.
The perception that smallpox has a history of thousands of years, was mainly based on old descriptions of symptoms of people who were sick of epidemics (in Egypt, China, India, Rome and elsewhere), which resembled those of the smallpox. For example, scarring in persons μουμιών from Egypt, have been considered as evidence for an epidemic of smallpox before 3,000 to 4,000 years. But there was always the margin of error, as your symptoms could be related to other diseases (e.x. measles or chicken pox).
Researchers from many countries, headed by the professor of evolutionary biology Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney, who made the relevant publication in the journal of biology “Current Biology”, they got permission from the World Health Organization to study samples of the pathogen micro-organism of smallpox, that have been identified in mummified child, which had been found in a crypt of the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius. The analysis of radioactive carbon showed that the child died about 1650 m.G., at a time when smallpox was spreading in Europe.
The scientists were able to “read” (αλληλουχίσουν) the full genome of the virus (Variola virus that causes smallpox, and then -comparing it with recent strains of the virus from the 20th century – were able to “map” the evolution of the. It is the oldest human virus that has never been decoded (the oldest up to now was bacterial DNA age of 1,600 years old approximately).
Nevertheless the virus is not as ancient as one would expect. “The fossil reveals that in reality, the evolutionary history of the virus is much more recent than we thought up to now: only a few hundred years and not thousands,” said Huh. Holmes.
He added, however, that, for the moment, it is impossible to say where it came from smallpox (by an animal or by a mutation of humans), who was the ancestor of the virus, and when exactly it first appeared in humans. The new estimate is that this happened between 1588 and 1654 m.G., that is, the appearance -“conveniently” for the spread of the virus – coincided with the era of discoveries of new territories, migration and the first globalisation. The scientists intend to look at other mummies to illuminate more the issue, as it is considered important.
Smallpox has been one of the most deadly diseases that hit never of humanity, causing many millions of deaths. The development of a vaccine began after the first experiments of Edward Jenner in 1796.
The last known case was recorded in Somalia in 1977, and officially the disease was considered by the World Health Organization that was eradicated in 1980 after a global vaccination campaign has been developed (considered to be the only human disease that has disappeared after vaccination). Some stocks of the terrible virus are now kept under extremely strict security measures in two laboratories in the united states and Russia.
They discovered the virus of smallpox in a child’s mummy
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