Smallpox
Smallpox was a disease that was caused by a virus. The virus spread when an uninfected person came in direct contact with a sick person and breathed in the virus. Usually, the virus was in tiny drops that were coughed up by the sick person. After about two weeks the infected person would develop a high fever and muscle aches and pains. After about three days of fever the person would break out in a rash all over his or her body. At first it looked like red spots, but these spots gradually became blisters that were about the size of a pencil eraser. After about five days of rash, the fluid in the clear blisters turned to pus. The more pus spots that a person had, the more likely he or she was to die.
There were two main types of a smallpox virus. Variola major, which killed about 20 percent of the people who were infected and variola minor, which killed about 2 percent of its victims. If a person did not die, the pus gradually dried up to form scabs that dropped off after one or two weeks. The pus spots on the face often left permanent scars known as pockmarks.
Smallpox was known to the ancient peoples of China, India, and Egypt. Pharaoh Ramses V died of it in 1157 BC. It spread wherever large numbers of people moved, and it was a very serious problem in cities where people lived close together. It first reached Europe in the fifth century, and it was one of the leading causes of death in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was brought to the Americas many times during that period, first by the Spanish conquerors and later by African slaves, where it wiped out many native American populations.
The Hindu god Krishna is believed to have loved milkmaids because of their beautiful, unscarred, complexions. Milkmaids, of course, spent a lot of time around cows, which are carriers of cowpox, a virus similar to the smallpox virus. In 1796 the British physician, Edward Jenner, after noting that milkmaids were spared the smallpox, demonstrated that if he infected the skin of someone with the scab of a cowpox sore, that person would not get smallpox. This was the beginning of vaccination. During the next 130 years, the practice of vaccination was gradually adopted by health workers in all parts of the world, but the disease still survived in many places where not enough people were vaccinated.
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.
Smallpox is a very virulent disease that has many accompanying symptoms. The two major forms of smallpox, Variola major and Variola minor have many concurring symptoms that follow an identical course. However, major has some distinguishing symptoms that minor does not. These include hemorrhaging and internal and external bleeding. These extreme symptoms are the reason why major, the more common of the two forms, has a 30% fatality rate whereas minor only has a 1% fatality rate. If a person was fortunate and survived smallpox, they would be left with lifelong scars all over their body.
... risk of developing the disease. It was observed that those who had been infected with the clinically similar but less severe cowpox disease by milking cows were also immune to smallpox. This observation led Edward Jenner to his first ever vaccination technique. He inserted the cowpox virus obtained from the scabs of a woman into a boy, and then when the boy was inoculated some time later, he proved immune to smallpox (Fenner). It is impossible to contract smallpox from this inoculation of the less virulent related virus and allowed individuals a way to protect themselves without risk. Later, the smallpox vaccination was adapted by using a different live virus, the vaccinia virus which is more similar to variola than cowpox and therefore provides better cross-immunity. As the practice of vaccination gained popularity, it had a significant impact on life expectancy.
Smallpox did not play favorites when it came to choosing a victim. Whether it was a young child, or a older person, smallpox destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands over a period of eight years in the colonies. Fenn did a great job in my opinion of describing just how bad this disease was and painted a horrific picture in explaining what people went through when dealing with the disease. Even as the author started her introduction into the book she explains that Viariola (smallpox) blinded, scarred, maimed and killed many of its victims. It is hard to even try and imagine what these individuals went through when dealing with smallpox. However, one thing is according the author they did not let the virus destroy them. They fought back with every fiber in their bodies to understand and illuminate this dreaded foe.
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.
In 1520, a group of Spanish bring over the smallpox virus to Mexico, and infects the Aztecs, who have no immunity. They infect the Aztecs when the two Spanish groups fight over the land. One of
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).
From 166 A.D. to 180 A.D., The Antonine Plague spread around Europe devastating many countries. This epidemic killed thousands per day and is also known as the modern-day name Smallpox. It is known as one of deadliest plagues around the world.
It was spread by physical contact with human skin and mostly affected children and adults. This disease was so outrageous that led to a vast number of deaths in New England colonies. Also, smallpox virus transmitted through airborne from the oral, nasal mucus of the infected person. But mostly was spread from close contact or contaminated material of the infected person. It was spread very slowly and less broadly than other viral illness which took long time to identify the infection in first two weeks. Infection of smallpox started to grow between 7 to 10 days when the scabs form onto bruise. The signs and symptoms of this disease were with 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 were different types in between the smallpox disease with other classification. By preserving the virus, Boylston personally inoculated 247 people in 1721 and 1722 to prevent transmission. However, from there only six people died, and Boylston was the first American surgeon to inoculate his patients personally. The author portrays the background data Boylston used to examine the inoculation practice on different age and gender of persons to cure his patients were from previous experiments. The inoculation method provided higher rank of immunity in preventing smallpox infection. The prevention for smallpox was through inducing antibodies by vaccine which lasts longer for a person taken
The smallpox disease is caused by the Variola virus, a virus of the Orthopox family, which also includes cowpox, monkeypox, and other related diseases (Tucker 5). Two variants
Smallpox is an acute contagious disease cause by the variola virus, a member of the poxvirus family. The only host of this disease is through human. It is transmitted through close contact. The name smallpox is derived from Latin word for “spotted” and then refers to the raised bumps that appear on the face and body of an infected person. There are two kinds of smallpox; Variola major and Variola minor. Variola major is the most severe one and most common smallpox with extensive rash and high fever. Both cause skin lesions though the symptoms of the Variola minor are considerably fatal. The symptoms of smallpox are as follows; high fever, fatigue, vomiting, headaches. In addition, a rash on the face, arms and legs and other parts of the body
Smallpox is a lethal disease that is caused by Variola virus, which is classified under orthopoxvirus family (Norn, 2011). Small pox was one of the most feared diseases in the world until it was eradicated by a joint global vaccination program that was led by the World Health Organization. Eradication of this disease was a major global achievement where smallpox disease was officially declared eradicated in the year 1979. The last known case of small pox was recorded in Somalia in the year 1977. The other case of small pox that was recorded in 1978 in Birmingham city was as a result of laboratory accident (Surjan, 2009). One person was killed in the incidence and a limited outbreak of the disease was recorded.
“Smallpox Eradication: Destrcution of the Variola Virus Stocks.” 15 April 2009. World Health Organization. 15 Nov. 2014
Smallpox is a disease from the variola virus. Smallpox has caused an estimated number of 300 million deaths in the 1900s alone. Smallpox is said to have been around since the ancient Egyptian times. The disease was eradicated in the late 20th century and two samples are still kept, one in U.S.A and one in Russia. Smallpox creates bumps and blisters all over the body and has been one of the most fatal epidemics the world has seen.
Vaccines are one of modern medicine 's game-changing breakthroughs, but they have been around for hundreds of years earlier in primitive forms. Dating back to medieval times, the first precursor to modern vaccination occurred in China around the tenth century. (2) Known as variolation or inoculation, the method was used to prevent smallpox that plagued Europe and Asia. (2) Chinese doctors found that when healthy people were exposed to smallpox scab tissue, they were less likely to get infected or got a milder, less dangerous case. (2) The most common form of inoculation in China was to crush smallpox scabs into powder and then breathe it through the nose.(2) Because smallpox was such a destructive disease, in the late 1700 's, George Washington ordered mandatory inoculation for troops who hadn 't survived smallpox before. (2) Also in the late 1700 's, Edward Jenner