Did Neanderthals Deal with the Common Cold and Other Types of Ailments?

More than 50,000 years ago, life was not going well for Neanderthals, who later became known in the scientific community as “Chagyrskaya D.” He lived with relatives, including his teenage daughter, in a cave in the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia.

Food was scarce, and to add to her problems, Chagyrskaya D. suffered from several infectious diseases. He may have suffered from skin lesions, a persistent sore throat and digestive problems.

Scientists are using DNA testing to find out what ailed Chagyrskaya D and other Neanderthals. This new knowledge tells scientists more about how Homo neanderthalensis experienced and if the interactions with Homo sapiens led to their eventual extinction.

Learn more: Why do I get sick so often, while others stay in strangely good health?

What diseases did Neanderthals get?

In a 2022 article in Nature, a team of scientists revealed their analysis of the DNA of the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals. The Neanderthal group consisted of six adults and five children. Many of them were close relatives, including Chagyrskaya D and her teenage daughter, Chagyrskaya H.

Since Neanderthals lived around the same time and were related, scientists have suggested that they may have been a family that died around the same time. Famine due to a bad hunting season was one of the possible causes of their disappearance.

In a study carried out in 2024 in Virusanother research team used DNA analysis to identify viruses hidden in the remains of Chagyrskaya 11.

Their analysis revealed the presence of three viruses. The first, herpesvirus, includes the herpes simplex virus (known to cause lesions), the varicella-zoster virus (responsible for chickenpox and shingles), and the Epstein-Barr virus (which causes infectious mononucleosis).

Papillomaviruses constitute the second family of viruses discovered. They cause the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can then lead to cervical cancer and other types of cancer.

Finally, scientists discovered adenoviruses responsible for persistent respiratory and gastrointestinal infections. These viruses can persistently infect parts of the throat, including the adenoids and tonsils.

Although other Neanderthal remains also contained DNA from these pathogens, Chagyrskaya D was the only one to possess all three. The illnesses may have been latent or he may have endured years with a chronic sore throat and painful sores.

Neanderthals experienced viruses like today

In addition to the pathogens identified through DNA analysis, scientists also discovered that Neanderthals must have endured the coronavirus, according to a study by Iranian Journal of Public Health.

From shingles to coronaviruses, these pathogens are also known to modern humans. Ancient interactions between humans and Neanderthals helped humans develop an evolutionary response.

Early humans lived alongside Neanderthals for more than 200,000 years, although they didn’t meet until around 50,000 years ago. And when they met, as part of a study in Cell so delicately, they “swapped genes”.

Neanderthals had weaker immune systems

They also shared new pathogens. Neanderthals had not been exposed to these viruses before, nor did they have as robust an immune system as early humans.

“Our ancestors evolved in tropical Africa, where more of the sun’s energy reached the ground. More vegetation grew, more animals lived on vegetation, and more pathogens lived on animals. As a result, more pathogens crossed the species barrier, from animals to humans, and Homo sapiens would have been carriers of increasingly deadly infectious diseases than Neanderthals,” says Jonathan Kennedy, author of Pathogenesis: how germs entered history and a faculty member at Queen Mary, University of London, at the Center for Public Health and Policy.

With weakened immune systems and exposure to new diseases, interactions with humans may have contributed to the extinction of Neanderthals, according to Kennedy.

But these interactions appear to have been beneficial for humans. These “gene swaps” led to the development of a DNA adaptation that helped humans learn to deal with RNA viruses.

“The Neanderthal genetic variants most frequently retained by modern humans are those that encode proteins that interact with RNA viruses, particularly HIV and influenza. These genetic variants were first acquired about 50,000 years ago,” says Kennedy.

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