–16th Century Korean Mummy Hides Hepatitis B Virus Secret According to Professor Mark Spigelman of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Research in Infectious and Tropical Diseases, he has studied a 500-year-old child mummy recently unearthed in Korea, and this research may provide important clues to the human race’s fight against hepatitis B (Hepatitis B). The study may provide important clues to the fight against hepatitis B (Hepatitis B). Professor Spigelman is a world leader in the study of palaeoepidemiology, and his research on mummies from Hungary to the Sudan has yielded information on many diseases that affect human health today, such as tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, and other diseases. Tuberculosis, Leishmania, Influenza, etc. The well-preserved mummy found in Korea could provide crucial data on the evolution of hepatitis B virus, which was previously not even known to exist in Korea. Hepatitis B is a major killer of human health, leading to cancer or loss of liver function, and kills more than one million patients worldwide each year. Scientists from Korea and Israel have discovered a unique subtype of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) C2 genotype in a Korean child mummy. This genotype is very common in Southeast Asia. Back in 2007, researchers found hepatitis B virus in the mummy’s still-preserved liver. This time, the genetic code was broken more completely and thoroughly. Carbon 14 testing of the mummy’s clothing revealed that the young boy lived during the Korean Joseon Dynasty in the 16th century. The DNA sequence found in the liver biopsy allowed scientists to map the complete ancient HBV genome, the oldest complete viral genome ever reconstructed in the literature. The results of the study were published in Hepathology. Chronic hepatitis B is a major cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. In-depth analysis of this ancient HBV genome can be used to study the evolutionary history of the virus and its transmission history (most likely originally from Africa to East Asia); it also has the potential to further elucidate how the virus migrated from the Far East (China, Japan, Korea) to other parts of Asia and Australia. Using modern molecular genetic techniques, the researchers compared the DNA sequences of ancient HBV with modern HBV, and the two showed significant differences. The change in genetic code may be a spontaneous mutation of the virus due to environmental stress during evolution. Based on the analysis of the prevalent mutation rate of the genes, the HBV genes in the mummies go back 3,000 or even 100,000 years. According to the findings of this study, it is confirmed that hepatitis B is an ancient disease, and although modern medical understanding of the hepatitis B virus only began in the 1960s, the ancients already had a long history of struggle with hepatitis B. According to my research, the classic work of Chinese medicine “Nei Jing” already contains a treatise on something similar to hepatitis B. Therefore, we have reason to believe that there is a good treatment for hepatitis B in the treasure house of Chinese medicine.