Smallpox

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Recommended: Cause and effect of smallpox

Smallpox is a very dangerous and in almost every case, fatal disease. There are two types of smallpox: variola major and variola minor. Variola Major consists of four categories ordinary (this is the most common), flat, and hemorrhagic. Variola Major only has an overall fatality rate of 30%. Flat and Hemorrhagic are the two most deadly type of Variola major. Smallpox looks like a very red, puffy, and raised rash. Smallpox is an very dangerous and contagious disease that has been present throughout history until recent times (the last epidemic case of smallpox was October 26, 1977 in Somalia).

Smallpox is an very contagious disease that lasts for about 41 days, 24 of those days are mildly to severely contagious. Variola passes from person to person through contact, prolonged face to face contact, contact with body fluids or scabs from pustules, and in extreme cases the pathogen can become an airborne pathogen. The smallpox virus is passed from human to human and it is not known if any other animals and/or insects can directly pass the variola virus to humans. There have been many cases where people have confused the variola virus with other viruses. For example S Scar Rickettsiella is an deadly disease that is nearly identical to smallpox but it is not as deadly and somewhere on the body a little scar shaped like a S (about the size of an mole) appears on the body. There is one live culture of smallpox kept in America in Atlanta, Georgia in an very secure facility. There is also one kept in Novosibirsk, Russia. Many world leaders fear that the next weapon will be biochemical terrorism. Smallpox can become an airborne pathogen which could cause the greatest amount of damage in a terror attack. From the time the virus enters into...

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...tely end the possibility of an attack doing any damage.

Works Cited

Dowshen, Steven. "Smallpox." KidsHealth - the Web's most visited site about children's health. The Nemours Foundation, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .

"More imagesSmallpox." CDC Smallpox Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. .

"Smallpox: MedlinePlus." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .

Spillius, Alex. "'We must keep smallpox stocks' US and Russia tells World Health Organisation." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 18 Aug. 1929. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. .

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