A Bolivian Mummy's Tooth Is Rewriting the History of Scarlet Fever
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2 min readKey summary
Researchers in Italy and the UK found Streptococcus pyogenes DNA in a 700-year-old Bolivian mummy’s tooth.
The genome looks related to modern throat-infection strains, suggesting scarlet fever may have been present in the pre-Columbian Americas.
That challenges the assumption that such diseases reached the Americas only after Europeans arrived.
The study also supports the authenticity of longer ancient DNA fragments, not just contamination.
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