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Smallpox
5
Those infected may experience:
- Smallpox spread worldwide before its eradication in 1979
- There were zero cases of smallpox in the US in 2015
- Smallpox is short-term and resolves within days or weeks
- Smallpox killed about 30% of those it infected. The majority survived, but many were left blind or horribly disfigured.
- Once you survived smallpox, you were immune to it.
- Half of infants who caught smallpox died.
- Teenagers have a 90% chance of surviving the disease.
- For those aged over 60, the fatality rate was about 30%
- Pain areas: back or muscles
- Skin: rashes, small bumps, blisters, scabs, or scars
- Whole body: fever, malaise, or chills
- Also common: vomiting or headaches
How it spreads
- Airborne respiratory droplets (coughs or sneezes)
- Skin-to-skin contact (handshakes or hugs)
- Saliva (kissing or shared drinks)
- Blood products (used needles or unscreened blood)
- Indirectly (In rare instances, the airborne virus can spread through the ventilation system in a building.)
- Contaminated items (clothing, plates, silverware, cups, bedding, etc.)
Smallpox
(aka Variola)
Smallpox
An eradicated virus that used to be contagious, disfiguring, and often deadly.
The Variola virus is a double-stranded DNA virus.
Treatment
Smallpox is thought to have originated in India or Egypt at least 3,000 years ago. The earliest evidence for the disease comes from the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses V, who died in 1157 B.C. His mummified remains show telltale pockmarks on his skin.
Humans are the only natural hosts of Variola.
There's no treatment or cure for smallpox, but there is a vaccine to prevent it. However, the vaccine's side effect risk is too high to justify routine vaccination for people at low risk of exposure to the virus.
Famous People Who Survived Smallpox
- Mozart
- Beethoven
- Queen Elizabeth I
- George Washington
- Abraham Lincoln
- Joseph Stalin
*Smallpox is thought to have been the demise of the Aztec and Inca empires.
When smallpox was officially certified as eradicated, in December 1979, an agreement was reached under which all remaining stocks of the virus would either be destroyed or passed to one of two secure laboratories – one in the United States and one in the Russian Federation. That process was completed in the early 1980s and since then no other laboratory has officially had access to the virus which causes smallpox.