Ancient pathogen genomics in Africa: Current evidence and future directions.

Ancient pathogen genomics in Africa remains largely unexplored despite its importance for understanding disease history and emergence.

• Why it matters: Understanding Africa's pathogen history is crucial because it is central to human evolution and hosts diverse ecological settings relevant to zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, yet remains underrepresented in current research.
• What they did: The review assesses the current state of ancient pathogen research in Africa, focusing on bacterial, parasitic, and viral perspectives, and highlights the need for continent-scale reconstructions of past disease landscapes.
• The result: Identifying Africa as a pivotal frontier, the work outlines strategic priorities to move from isolated detections toward comprehensive reconstructions, which could inform long-term patterns of endemicity, emergence, and epidemic risk.