All articles tagged with #smallpox
A study published in Science confirms that smallpox was introduced to the Americas by European colonists. Researchers analyzed ancient DNA from two mummies at the Camarones site in northern Chile, finding genetic traces of the virus that match European strains. This provides the first direct molecular evidence linking the disease to colonization, resolving a long-standing historical debate.
Researchers have identified the first direct molecular evidence that smallpox reached the Americas through European colonization. Published in the journal Science, the study analyzes ancient DNA from two mummies at the Camarones archaeological site in northern Chile. The findings confirm that a specific smallpox strain, closely related to European variants, infected Indigenous populations between 1492 and 1631. This discovery provides biological proof for a historical theory long debated by scholars, illustrating how the virus devastated communities that lacked natural immunity.
New DNA analysis of two late 15th–early 17th‑century Chilean mummies uncovered a lost variola (smallpox) strain, providing the first molecular evidence that Europeans carried smallpox to the Americas during colonization and revealing how the virus evolved when Indigenous populations had little immunity; the study also notes how vaccination by Jenner eventually slowed the virus, contributing to its global eradication.
Genetic analysis of two Chilean mummies dated 1492–1631 recovered the oldest smallpox DNA known in the Americas, belonging to an extinct variola lineage that bridges Old World European strains with later variants and providing direct molecular evidence that Europeans introduced smallpox to Indigenous populations during colonization.
Genomic analysis of smallpox DNA from Chilean mummies shows the virus arrived in the Americas from Europe, with the Chilean strain diverging from a European lineage around the 13th century, confirming European colonizers were the source and illustrating how the virus evolved as it spread to new populations.
New ancient DNA from two Chilean mummies dating to 1492–1631 CE links the smallpox outbreak in the Americas to European contact, with the CAM9 lineage sitting between medieval European strains and later variants, providing genetic proof of early smallpox arrival in South America.
Researchers analyzing 500-year-old Chilean skeletons have recovered ancient smallpox genomes, the first from the Americas, suggesting early strains may have been less deadly than later global variants and offering clues about how the virus evolved before it became a worldwide killer (study published in Science).
A Nature Human Behaviour modeling study argues the 1789 smallpox outbreak among Indigenous Australians was likely sparked by vials of dried smallpox scabs kept by British medics on the First Fleet, possibly replenished during the voyage, rather than introduced from Makassar islanders; the outbreak devastated Indigenous communities with an estimated 220,000 deaths and prompts revised views of pre-1788 Indigenous populations.
In May 1980 the WHO formally declared smallpox eradicated after a 13-year, roughly $300 million vaccination drive that used a ‘ring vaccination’ approach—targeting contacts around each case rather than mass vaccination—pioneered by Donald Henderson and William Foege. The last naturally acquired case was Ali Maow Maalin in Somalia (1977), with the final global case in a laboratory-related incident (Janet Parker, 1978). By the late 1970s the disease had been eliminated from most regions (South America by 1971, Indonesia 1972, India 1975, Bangladesh 1975, Ethiopia 1976), though continued lab stocks existed in two secure facilities (CDC in Atlanta and VECTOR in Koltsovo) and remain the subject of ongoing debate about destruction and biosecurity.
Archaeologists at the Las Gobas caves in northern Spain uncovered 33 skeletons from a secluded 7th–11th‑century troglodyte community that lived largely underground, showing widespread inbreeding, signs of violent trauma, and a smallpox outbreak likely spread through contaminated pork; isolation and resource pressures likely contributed to the site's abandonment by the late 11th century, after which the caves became a necropolis.
William H. Foege, a physician-epidemiologist, led the global eradication of smallpox via ring vaccination, conducting pivotal campaigns in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and India before directing the CDC and shaping HIV and broader public-health efforts; he died at 89.
William Foege pioneered ring vaccination, a targeted strategy that stopped smallpox by vaccinating the right people around cases, transforming a centuries-old killer into a disease we no longer fear; his death underscores the danger of letting proven public-health progress fade as measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases resurge.
An op-ed tribute recounts how Bill Foege’s surveillance-containment method—proactive case finding, isolating cases, and vaccinating contacts—helped eradicate smallpox worldwide, including pivotal efforts in India after initial mass-vaccination resistance, and cemented a lasting legacy for public health.
William H. Foege, whose vaccination strategy helped eradicate smallpox in the 1970s and who later directed the CDC during the early AIDS response, died at 89 in Atlanta from congestive heart failure. His work is hailed as a landmark in global health; he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
The article explores the long history of vaccine skepticism, dating back to the 1800s, highlighting how opposition has often been rooted in concerns over personal freedom and misinformation, despite vaccines' proven effectiveness in eradicating diseases like smallpox and saving millions of lives.