Smallpox also known by its Latin name variola or variola vera was an infectious disease caused by either two virus variants variola major or variola minor. The disease was originally known as 'pox' or 'red plague'. Smallpox is transmitted from a person to person via infective droplets during close contact with infected symptomatic people.
According to WHO, Smallpox was one of the world's most devastating diseases known to humanity. The virus is believed to have emerged in human populations about 10,000 BC. The disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans annually during the 18th century and 300-500 million deaths in the 19th century. As recently as 1967, World Health organization estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year. The period since eradication has been defined by a lengthy and complex debate focused on the destruction of the last remaining stocks of live variola virus. In 1996, at the 49th WHA, Member States decided to have this stock destroyed in June 1999, only to allow for temporary retention for further research in subsequent years.
However, despite the published journals and other references pertaining to the history of smallpox a report from National Geographic revealed that the virus' timeline and profile may be revised or even change because of the discovery of a Lithuanian Mummy that possess the oldest known smallpox virus. A group of researchers from DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University in Ontario have found and sequenced smallpox DNA from a Lithuanian Mummy. When the researchers compared the DNA of the mummified body to the current smallpox strains they were really the same.
The researchers constructed a study and found out that the virus' timeline started during 1588. By looking closer to the published timeline of the virus, 1588 is centuries after the cases of smallpox have been identified in historical descriptions from India and China. Based from their results the researchers think that it is very possible that the earlier cases and accounts as published in old journals and references are misidentification and diagnosis of other pox-like diseases.
With the researchers' discovery they stated that they will have further experiments and investigation regarding the case. Meanwhile be updated with the upcoming and most awaited event of all the 59th Grammy Awards. Click Here.
