{
  "id": 7532647,
  "title": "Africa: Can an Ancient Virus Be Brought Back to Life? What 500-Year-Old Smallpox DNA Reveals",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/15/africa-can-an-ancient-virus-be-brought-back-to-life-what-500-year-old",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-15T10:26:14.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "AllAfrica Health",
    "slug": "allafrica-health",
    "url": "https://allafrica.com/stories/202609150259.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "[The Conversation Africa] Smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been eradicated worldwide. Researchers have now recovered fragments of ancient DNA belonging to variola virus, the virus that causes smallpox, from the naturally mummified remains of two Indigenous people buried in northern Chile.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}