In the year 1980, the World Health Organization declared that they have finally eradicated smallpox. Ever since then, no naturally occurring smallpox has been reported. But before this triumphant year, smallpox was a dreaded disease. Said to be responsible for the death of around 500 million people across the globe, I could only imagine how people were fearful of this disease.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
This recent study has discovered ancient traces of the variola virus (the virus that causes smallpox) in the remains of some Northern Europeans that lived during the Viking Age. It is thought of that some of these were Vikings themselves.
The new finding pushes back the proven record of smallpox infecting people by almost 1,000 years, to the year 603.
Researchers had previously discovered ancient traces of variola virus DNA in a mummy from the mid-1600s, which put the common origin of modern strains in the 16th or 17th century…
The team reconstructed nearly complete genetic blueprints of four of the 11 ancient viruses, which reveal that the Viking-era strains belong to a now-extinct group of variola viruses. During that period, smallpox may have been widespread throughout Europe and could have caused serious disease… It’s also possible that if Vikings were infected, they may have spread the disease as they traveled.
More details about this over at ScienceNews.
(Image Credit: Thames Valley Archaeological Services/ ScienceNews)
Source: neatorama