Virulence insights from ancient strep A
Ananya Dash, Christopher N LaRock · 2026
Read Virulence insights from ancient strep A by Ananya Dash, Christopher N LaRock (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13183938.txt.
Description
Ananya Dash and Christopher LaRock review new work on an old germ found in a mummy's tooth. Their 2026 piece covers Streptococcus pyogenes, known as strep A. The germ causes strep throat and, at times, severe skin infections that eat flesh. Scarlet fever waves from it once killed many people.
A team led by Valverde searched DNA from mummies in Bolivia, from the years 1100 to 1450. They found strep in a loose tooth. Its genes look close to modern strains. It would test as group A strep in a lab today. The find raises a sharp question. Was strep in the Americas before Columbus, and did it cause mild or severe disease back then?
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ananya Dash, Christopher N LaRock |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 3 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |