The World Health Organization's Dealing With Smallpox

1489 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of vaccinations

Smallpox is an infectious disease caused by the variola virus. Variola major and variola minor are the two clinical types of smallpox. Variola major is the most widespread and severe of the two. Smallpox is unique to human beings, and can be found worldwide. This disease is also known by the Latin name Variola or Variola vera, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning “pimple”. Europe came up with the name smallpox, and later in the 15th century used the name of this disease to distinguish between syphilis (Wikipedia, 2010).

Smallpox is transmitted through the air, and spread by direct contact with an infected person. This disease is very contagious, but does not spread quickly because of its short infectious period (Wikipedia, 2010). On a lesser scale transmission can be via contaminated bed linen or clothes. A person who contracts smallpox can remain healthy and noninfectious for up to 17 days. Flulike symptoms occur initially, then a rash appears first on the face then spreads to the extremities. Other symptoms include muscle pain, malaise, headache, nausea, vomiting, prostration, and back pain. Ulcerative lesions develop in the mouth and nose, and these lesions then discharge large amounts of the virus into the throat. Approximately one-third of people who contract this disease die, but those who survive smallpox were left blind with deep pitted marks mainly on the face (Levin, 2007).

Vaccination is the primary treatment for smallpox, and no medication is currently approved for treatment of this disease. Smallpox vaccination is needed within three days of exposure to prevent and decrease the severity of smallpox. Being vaccinated four to seven days after exposure will also modify the severity of the disease or may offer some d...

... middle of paper ...

...om a campaign against malaria gave WHO little reason to allocate funding to this program. Millions of people needed to be vaccinated and funds were not available. The eradication program was undermanned, and not until 1966 did more employees work full-time on the program (Levine, 2007).

The director-general told the World Health Assembly (WHA) that lack of funds for vehicles, supplies, and equipment made it hard for the eradication process to start. Political and financial support was distant. The World Health Organization had to depend on public campaigns which provided restricted leadership. This caused people to doubt if the eradication program was attainable, and also gave reason to deny funding and political support. All these factors played a role in WHO not immediately undertaking the eradication program after being endorsed by the WHA (Levine, 2007).

Show More
Related

  • Pox Americana

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    In closing, the variola virus affected a great amount in that era including, military strategy, trade, and native populations. Elizabeth A. Fenn’s book Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82 sheds light on a significant aspect of that era that had not been given proper credence beforehand. She also illuminated the effect of smallpox when it came to race and social status. With regard to race, smallpox decimated much of the non European populations partly because of their lack of an innate immunity to that virus and Europeans lack of regard for those of a different race. Fenn’s argument on social status showed how the poorer strata’s of society suffered more severely from the variola virus because of their lack of finances to get inoculated; thus, the poor often suffered a worse strain of the virus which often lead to death.

    Read More

  • Smallpox Blankets during the French Indian War

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    A different perspective on a smallpox epidemic during the French and Indian War appears in Andrew J. Blackbird's History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan. Blackbird, Chief Mack-e-te-be-nessy, was a member of a distinguished Ottawa family from the northwest shore of the Michigan lower peninsula. He wrote his History late in life, after a long career in education, politics, and public service.

    Read More

  • Edward Jenner the Creator of the Vaccine for Smallpox

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century a disease dominated the world killing one in three people who caught it, smallpox. The few that survived the disease were left with very disfigured bodies and weak immune systems. In modern days this disease seems very unusual and hard to catch; it is all because of one man, Edward Jenner.

    Read More

  • Film: The Age of Aids

    1862 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...surrounded it due just to who was known to contract the disease first. The lack of prevention was then mostly due to the lack of information, and the neglect to the urgency of the disease by political leaders, as seen in Uganda by president Nelson. We could have saved millions of people lives had they known that the disease could affect anyone around them including themselves, and had they known what to do prevent the spread to them firstly, if not how to prevent transmitting it to someone else.

    Read More

  • The Similarities Between Smallpox And The Black Death

    147 Words  | 1 Pages

    One similarity between smallpox and the black death was that they both established new trade with countries they had rarely traded with before. With smallpox, the Americas were faced with a labour shortage due to the amount of people smallpox had killed. The labour was needed to work in silver mines and sugar plantations.To fill the shortage of labour, slaves were traded from the Guinea Coast, somewhere there was not much trade in before, but now was a bustling center of trade due to the demand for slaves. Similarly, during the black death, there was a shortage of people because of the shrunken population. There were less people buying wool, wine, and cheese, so merchants from Europe sook out customers in different areas. Some such areas were

    Read More

  • Smallpox in America

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    The perspective the author gives to this book is a unique. Smallpox according to most histories does not play the role of a major character, but a minor part. In my opinion smallpox was a major factor during the Revolutionary War, and Feen focuses on several key areas which allows us to see just how bad this epidemic was and the grip it had not only on the soldiers, but the colonist as well.

    Read More

  • Smallpox in New England

    448 Words  | 1 Pages

    Native Americans were completely susceptible to contracting the disease, but they weren't the only victims. Twenty people died on the Mayflower as a result of smallpox. There was a smallpox outbreak in Plymouth Colony around 1633. Twenty people died including their only physician. This was the beginning of the colonial's struggle with the disease.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Smallpox on the New World

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to understand the history of smallpox one first has to understand how diseases like it evolve. Much like other species, diseases that survive in the long run are the microbes that most effectively reproduce and are able to find suitable places to live. For a microbe to effectively reproduce, it must "be defined mathematically as the number of new infected per each original patient." This number will largely depend on how long each victim is able to spread the virus to other victims (Diamond, 198).

    Read More

  • The 1918 Flu Pandemic

    1940 Words  | 4 Pages

    Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .

    Read More

  • American Revolution Smallpox

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was spread very slowly and less broadly than other viral illnesses which took a long time to identify the infection in the first two weeks. Infection of smallpox started to grow between 7 to 10 days when the scabs formed into bruises. The signs and symptoms of this disease include high fever, widespread rashes, redness, muscle pain, headache, common cold, vomiting, nausea and many more. Consequently, the virus was found in the bone marrow along with bloodstream in huge numbers. There are different types of the smallpox disease with other classifications.

    Read More

  • Bioterrorism with Smallpox

    2341 Words  | 5 Pages

    Henderson, Donald A., et al. “Smallpox as a Biological Weapon: Medical and Public Health Management.” Journal of the American Medical Association 281.22 (June 1999). 24 July 2008 .

    Read More

  • Smallpox

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the Columbian Exchange allowed for the beneficial exchange of cultures, ideas, foods, and animals around the world during the 1450-1750 time period, it also had a dark side. One detrimental result of the Columbian Exchange would be the spreading of smallpox from Europe to the New World.

    Read More

  • History of Smallpox

    2436 Words  | 5 Pages

    The history of smallpox goes back for thousands of years. It is thought to have appeared as much as 10,000 years ago and since then, it has claimed the lives of millions of people, many of whom have been famous figures in history. After a vaccine was discovered in 1796, countries throughout the world began the fight to eradicate the disease. This fight was won in 1980 as a result of the international effort headed by the World Health Organization. Today, smallpox is no longer a threat in nature but the virus is still stored in labs, from which a biological weapon could be made.

    Read More

  • And the Band Played On

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Government and Politicians didn’t really care. Most of them ignore it and waited for the last minute. Others, like the President Ronald Regan spent more money on war supplies and other stuff, than helping the CDC find a cure. They were only given a certain limited space, no money, and outdated equipment.

    Read More

  • Global Governance: Globalization and Non-State Actors

    2012 Words  | 5 Pages

    London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.

    Read More

More about The World Health Organization's Dealing With Smallpox

Open Document