Tag Archives: smallpox

Diverse Strains of Smallpox Virus Were Widespread in Viking Age, New Study Shows Smallpox, caused by the variola virus, is one of the most devastating human diseases. Smallpox killed millions of people but drove Edward Jenner’s invention of vaccination, which eventually led to the annihilation of the virus, declared in …

New research suggests that smallpox may not be an ancient disease but a much more modern killer that went on to become the first human disease eradicated by vaccination. The findings appear today in the journal Current Biology. This transmission electron micrograph depicts a number of variola virions. Image credit: …