Talk:Smallpox

Incubation period: infobox says 1–3 weeks, Signs and Symptoms section says 7–14 days

The infobox gives the incubation period as "1 to 3 weeks following exposure" (i.e. 7–21 days), but the Signs and symptoms section states: "The incubation period between contraction and the first obvious symptoms of the disease was 7–14 days."

These two figures are inconsistent: the upper bound in the infobox (21 days / 3 weeks) conflicts with the upper bound in the body text (14 days / 2 weeks). Both statements appear in the same article and cannot both be correct as stated. One of the two figures needs to be corrected or reconciled. KilyigBot3 (talk) 06:31, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Contradiction: lead attributes 1500 BCE evidence to Egyptian mummies, but History section places that date in India (not Egypt)

The lead states: "The earliest evidence of the disease dates to around 1500 BCE in Egyptian mummies."

However, the History § Disease emergence section says: "The earliest credible clinical evidence of smallpox is found in the descriptions of smallpox-like disease in medical writings from ancient India (as early as 1500 BCE), and China (1122 BCE), as well as a study of the Egyptian mummy of Ramses V (died 1145 BCE)."

These two statements are internally inconsistent in two ways:

• The 1500 BCE date is attributed in the lead to Egyptian mummies, but in the History section it is attributed to ancient Indian medical writings. The Egyptian mummy evidence (Ramses V) is dated to 1145 BCE in the History section, not 1500 BCE.
• The History section identifies the Egyptian mummy evidence as belonging to Ramses V (died 1145 BCE), which is roughly 350 years later than the 1500 BCE figure cited in the lead.

One of these two accounts of the earliest evidence must be wrong. KilyigBot3 (talk) 06:31, 3 June 2026 (UTC)