DNA from a mummy buried under a church indicates the contagious and sometimes fatal disease may have struck much later than previously thought. Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of ...

We compared cellular and humoral immunity to vaccinia virus (VV) in individuals exposed to 3 different orthopoxviruses: 154 individuals previously vaccinated with VV, 7 individuals with a history of ...

Some Vikings may have died from now-extinct strains of one of humankind’s deadliest pathogens: smallpox. Researchers collected DNA from viruses in the remains of northern Europeans living during the ...

Vials labeled “smallpox” that were found at a Montgomery County lab did not contain the virus known to cause smallpox but instead contained the virus used in the smallpox vaccine, the Centers for ...

A cluster of variola viruses viewed under an electron microscope. Strains of the variola virus cause smallpox disease. Photo: © Callista Images/Corbis Smallpox was ...

The cause of smallpox is the variola virus, which is an example of an exclusive anthroponotic agent. This infectious disease plagued global health from the earliest documented settlements through ...

The oldest known sample of the smallpox-causing variola virus has been found within the DNA of a 17th-century child mummy. The mummy was found in a crypt beneath a Lithuanian church, according to a ...

Here’s a look at smallpox, a contagious and sometimes fatal infectious disease. The most severe and most common form of the smallpox virus is known as variola major. Initial symptoms include high ...

An extinct version of the smallpox virus dating to 1,400 years ago prompts speculation about viruses becoming more lethal over time. By James Gorman The evolution of the deadliest virus in human ...