• 🦠 New research using transmission modelling suggests the 1789 smallpox epidemic in the Sydney region likely originated from the British outpost, potentially spreading thousands of kilometers and causing up to 220,000 Aboriginal deaths over decades.

• 🗺️ The study refutes previous theories of northern Australian origin, showing no plausible pathway for the disease to reach Sydney from the north in time for the 1789 outbreak, strongly supporting a Sydney-linked genesis.

• 🏘️ Modelling indicates the disease could have persisted for up to 21 years, spreading across Australia and having a devastating impact on Indigenous communities, disrupting families, knowledge systems, and cultural practices with effects still felt today.

#Smallpox #IndigenousHistory #AustralianHistory

Chilean mummies reveal a lost lineage of smallpox. Centuries-old DNA that was found in these mummies belongs to an extinct viral lineage of smallpox that was brought across the Atlantic during European colonization of the Americas

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#Smallpox #AncientDNA #NewWorldGermlines

* 🦠 DNA from two ancient mummies in northern Chile has revealed the first known ancient smallpox genomes in the Americas.
* 📜 The near-identical genomes, from individuals living between 1492 and 1631, suggest they were infected during the same outbreak, providing rare molecular evidence of smallpox spread by European colonization.
* 🧬 This discovery fills a gap in smallpox's evolutionary history and supports historical accounts, anchoring a specific strain in colonial Chile where historical records are scarce.

#AncientDNA #Smallpox #History

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