Jakarta –
There are so many diseases in the world, but this one is crowned the most victim. What’s that? Apparently, the disease is smallpox. In the 20th century alone, smallpox managed to kill 300 million people. But a massive global vaccination campaign ended the disease in 1977, making it the first disease to be eradicated.
Smallpox is spread by viruses, Variola major and Variola minor. Smallpox causes fever, then a rash, which over several days develops into the characteristic skin-covered bumps that characterize the disease. The more serious strain, Variola major, kills about 30% of those it infects, with a higher mortality rate in infants. Death usually occurs within eight to 16 days.
Besides being one of the most dangerous and deadly diseases in the world, smallpox is an ancient disease. Advances in genetic sequencing technology have allowed researchers to carry out increasingly detailed analyzes of ancient viral DNA fragments in recent years that can help scientists pinpoint where and when smallpox emerged.
In Lithuania in 2016, scientists used viral DNA taken from the remains of a young boy. From there it is estimated that smallpox existed in the 1500s.
However, later discoveries pointed to the possibility smallpox much older than that. In 2020, viral DNA from Viking Age skeletons pushed forward genetic evidence that smallpox could have existed before AD 1050.
Furthermore, ancient records suggest that smallpox existed much earlier. Descriptions of symptoms resembling the disease have been found in 4th-century texts from China, and Egyptian mummies with pockmarked scars also show smallpox circulating around 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. Science Alert.
Watch Video “Recognize the Early Symptoms of Monkey Pox“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(ask/rns)
