The photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mostafa Al Zoubi, Gulf Today

A recent DNA analysis revealed that a fierce epidemic similar to the coronavirus struck humanity more than 20,000 years ago.

An international team of researchers led by the University of Queensland, Australia, explained that the genes in human DNA coding for the proteins, which currently interact with coronavirus, are similar to an ancient epidemic found in the DNA of East Asian individuals from China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan.  

A scientist conducts tests in a laboratory.

The team used data from the 1000 Genomes Project with a particular focus on changes in those genes in their study, which is code for proteins interacting with COVID-19.

It was the largest public database of common human genetic variations of all time.   

Professor Alexandrov of the University of Queensland said, "The computer scientists of the team applied evolutionary analysis to the human genome dataset and found evidence that the ancestors of East Asian peoples suffered from a pandemic similar to Covid-19.”