(Molecular Biology and Evolution (Oxford University Press)) An Italian research team has refined the history and origins of two extremely common pathogens in human populations, herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2. Using and applying rather precise data methods they estimated that the circulating strains of herpes simplex virus type 1 migrated from Africa about 5000 years ago. The exit from Africa of herpes simplex virus type 2 was even more recent and probably occurred in the eighteenth century, during the height of the slave trade.

Original source: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/mbae-hsv011020.php