July 20 (UPI) -- At its peak, smallpox killed nearly 30 percent of people infected by the virus. Those who survived were often crippled. But 40 years ago, after decades of vaccination efforts, the disease was eradicated.
Now, thanks to an analysis of American Civil War-era vaccination kits, scientists have traced the origins of the virus strains used during some of the earliest smallpox vaccination efforts in the United States, according to a study published Monday in the journal Genome Biology.
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