preview

The Smallpox Virus

Good Essays

Smallpox is one of the most lethal virus’ known to man. It is devastating to individual systems, and it’s high level of contagion makes it a major threat to populations, as seen historically, before mass vaccination was available. For many years before an understanding about the virus was developed, thousands suffered and died from it, with no relief except perhaps that of a comforting nurse. As scientific inquiry advanced, so did the approach to dealing with the virus, beginning with its primitive inoculation, to it's eradication from the natural environment. In recent years, the study of the virus has lead to harnessing it in the laboratory with the constant threat of biological warfare. The virus now lays dormant in freezers of American …show more content…

The duration of the infection can be divided into a number of stages from the incubation period to the resolution of scabs. After incubation, the first symptoms emerge such as malaise, high fever, muscle pains and sometimes vomiting. This is known as the prodrome phase which lasts 2 to 4 days. Smallpox is most contagious following the appearance of the rash, usually occurring around the 12th to 15th day. The first lesions appear on the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat and then rupture releasing large amounts of the virus into the saliva. Around the time the sores rupture in the mouth, a rash starts appearing on the rest of the body, particularly on the face, arms and legs. The last lesions appear 24 to 36 hours after the onset and no further sores appear. By around the 3rd or 4th day of the rash, the sores expand and are filled with a pus-like fluid. This stage lasts roughly a week, during which the lesions start leaking fluid, deflating and scabbing over. By around day 16-20, all the sores will have scabbed over and will start falling off leaving slight indented scars. It will take around 6 days for all the scabs to fall off, which then makes the person no longer contagious. (CDC Emergency Risk Communication …show more content…

6). For the most part, following the release of the vaccine, population growth has increased significantly. However, it became evident that those people living in wealthy countries and households had greater access to the smallpox vaccine as many of the reported cases were located in rural, low socio-economic areas of the world (Henderson & Benard, ch. 6). A study of first world populations, that is, Europe and North America, shows that life expectancy has increased in England, France and the United States by as much as thirty years since the year 1900 (Fogel, 2004). Furthermore, the last recorded case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977 and the last recorded case in the United States occurred in 1949 (Fauci, 2002). Finally, in May, 1980, the World Health Organization declared that the smallpox virus had been removed from the global

Get Access