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Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a highly contagious disease unique to humans caused by two virus variants called Variola major and Variola minor. V. major is the more deadly form, with a typical mortality of 20-40 percent of those infected. The other type, V. minor, only kills 1% of its victims. Many survivors are left blind in one or both eyes from corneal ulceration, and persistent skin scarring - pockmarks - is nearly universal. Smallpox was responsible for an estimated 300-500 million deaths in the 20th century. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year.
After successful vaccination campaigns, the WHO in 1980 declared the eradication of smallpox, though cultures of the virus are kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States and in RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With. Smallpox vaccination was discontinued in most countries in the 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends as the risks of vaccination include death (~1 per million), among other serious side effects. Nonetheless, after the 2001 anthrax attacks took place in the United States, concerns about smallpox have resurfaced as a possible agent for bioterrorismBioterrorism is terrorism using germ warfare, an intentional human release of a naturally-occurring or human-modified toxin or biological agent. The term is difficult to objectively define since there are varying definitions of biowar, biodefense, biosecu. As a result, there has been increased concern about the availability of vaccine stocks. Moreover, President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state of the United States. Under the U. Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and commander in chief of the armed forces. Because of the superpower status of th George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. His first four-year term as President began on January 20, 2001 following the controversial U. presidential election, 2000, where for the first time in American has ordered all American military personnel to be vaccinated against smallpox and has implemented a voluntary program for vaccinating emergency medical personnel who would likely be the first people to respond in case of a bioterrorist attack.
Famous victims of this disease include Ramesses V (not confirmed), Mary II of EnglandMary II ( 30 April 1662 28 December 1694) was Queen of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689 until her death, and Queen of Scotland from 11 April 1689 until her death. Mary, a Protestant, came to the Throne following the Glorious Revolution, during wh, Louis XV of France, and Peter II of Russia. Henry VIII's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, survived the disease but was scarred by it.
After first contacts with Europeans, the death of a large part of the native population of the New World was caused by European-transmitted diseases. Smallpox was the chief culprit. On at least one occasion, germ warfare was used by the British army under Jeffrey Amherst when smallpox-infected blankets were deliberately distributed to the Ottawa tribe in 1763.
Smallpox is described in the Ayurveda books. Treatment included inoculation with year-old smallpox matter. The inoculators would travel all across India pricking the skin of the arm with a small metal instrument using "variolous matter" taken from pustules produced by the previous year's inoculations. The effectiveness of this system was confirmed by the British doctor J.Z. Holwell in an account to the College of Physicians in London in 1767.
Edward Jenner developed a smallpox vaccine by using cowpox fluid (hence the name vaccination, from the Latin vaca, (cow); his first inoculation occurred on May 14, 1796. After independent confirmation, this practice of vaccination against smallpox spread quickly in Europe. The first smallpox vaccination in North America occurred on June 2, 1800. National laws requiring vaccination began appearing as early as 1805. The last case of wild smallpox occurred on September 11th, 1977. One last victim was claimed by the disease in the UK in September 1978, when Janet Parker, a photographer in the University of Birmingham Medical School, contracted the disease and died. A research project on smallpox was being conducted in the building at the time, though the exact route by which Ms. Parker became infected was never fully elucidated.
