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
The history of vaccinations begin with Edward Jenner, the country doctor from Gloucestershire who found, growing on cows, a nearly harmless virus the protected people from smallpox. Jenner’s vaccine was safer, more reliable, and more durable than variolation, and it is still the only vaccine to have eliminated its reason for being-in 1980, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease extinct. For nearly a century and a half, smallpox was the only vaccine routinely administered, and it saved millions of lives . But the controversy that marked the return of the vaccine, amid bioterrorism hysteria in 2002, was only the latest twist in the remarkable, mysterious life of vaccines.
It's killed more than prostate cancer and breast cancer fatality rates together. Smallpox was the first disease to be eliminated from the world through public-health efforts and vaccination. Smallpox still poses a threat because existing laboratory strains may be used as biological weapons. Approximately one-third of people with smallpox died from the disease. Survivors were scarred for life. If the eye was infected, blindness often resulted.There are new experimental medications that might be effective in smallpox, but these have not been tested in human cases since the disease has been eradicated.The smallpox vaccine contains a live virus called vaccinia. It is administered by dipping a pronged piece of metal into the vaccine and then pricking the skin.
Despite smallpox’s long history of harm, killing nearly 300 million people in the twentieth century alone, it is now considered eradicated thanks to a vaccine and vaccination program lead by the World Health Organization. Because of its eradication,
One of the major health event happen in the 1800s is when Edward Jenner, a english doctor create vaccination to cure smallpox. Edward jenner was born in may 17 1749 and died on january 26 1823 at the age of 74 from a massive stroke. He have safe many life. Smallpox is a contagious viral disease. It cause fever and left scar. Before smallpox is being cure over 400,000 unlucky people die each year from it. SmallPox have been all over the place in the old days. It was first being seen in china in the 4th century.It being said that every 3 out of 10 people died from it and who ever survive will have scar left on them. He thought of the idea when he know a dairymaid who said “i shall never have smallpox for i have had cowpox. I shall never
Armed with opposable thumbs and high-functioning frontal lobes, humans have historically battled disease, including the “the speckled monster”; smallpox. Known as a highly contagious virus, smallpox has been around since 10,000 B.C., and its plagues are responsible for causing millions of deaths. There was no knowledge of how to treat or prevent this disease from spreading until the idea of taking samples of dead smallpox cells and injecting them into a human was proven to build immunity. Over time, the treatment was perfected and has changed medical history by introducing the idea of the vaccine. Smallpox vaccinations eventually became mandated, and in 1979, smallpox was declared to be the first disease to ever be completely eradicated from
Throughout history, smallpox has been one of the dreaded scourges that inflicted mankind. World Health Organization (WHO) stated that smallpox is responsible for the 300 million death cases worldwide in the twentieth century. (Fenner, Henderson, Arita, Jezek , & Ladnyi, 1988) (Plotkin, 2004) It was only after Dr Edward Jenner’s development on the principle of vaccination that provided the only accurate technique for the prevention of smallpox. The introduction of vaccinia vaccine enabled the global eradication of naturally occurring smallpox in 1970, it is recorded that the last known smallpox case recorded was in Somalia after the eradication. (Rappuoli, Miller, & Falkow, 2002) Jenner’s procedure has been a highly effective immunizing agent, however, it seemed that it isn’t a successful fighter to disease because it carries high incidence of adverse side effects and severe complications. (Madigan, Martinko, Stahl , & Clark, 2012)This
Eradication is the concept that a disease is entirely eliminated in a region. (Carter n.d.) Only one infectious disease to date, smallpox, has been categorized as eradicated worldwide (CDC 2010). How did this eradication occur? From 1958 to 1965 all fifty states enacted legislation mandating school age children receive the smallpox vaccine (College of Philadelphia). Consequently, by 1971, no smallpox cases had been reported in the United States for 20 years. The last known smallpox case in the world was in Somalia in 1977 (CDC 2010). Even though small pox is the only listed eradicated disease, the Carter Foundation has listed six other diseases as having the potential to be eradicated: lymphatic filariasis (Elephantiasis),
One of the world’s most dreaded plagues for centuries, smallpox is now eradicated. Vaccination programs were pushed worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the disease was eliminated from the world. This push resulted in the last naturally occurring case in the world being almost 40 years ago. Once eradicated the once routine or mandatory vaccinations were stopped for the general public and it was deemed no longer necessary to prevent the disease. Although currently eradicated worldwide, two medical laboratory stockpiles still remain in Russia and the United States. With these stockpiles in existence the possibility of bio terrorism emerges and fear of these stockpiles getting into the wrong hands and being weaponized for
For approximately three-thousand years, smallpox has ravaged and plagued the four corners of the globe. In fact, in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, it was claimed to be the most infectious disease in the West, with an astounding 90% mortality rate in America. It wasn't until 1796, with English surgeon Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination, that the world saw relief from this devastating virus. However, even with this inoculation in use, the world continued to witness death from both the virus and the vaccine. In the year 1966, it was estimated that 10-15 million infected citizens world wide had passed away from smallpox that year alone ( “History” 12). As a result of these devastating numbers, in the following year, 1967, the World Health
The preparedness community has vastly changed since we first started working toward eradicating smallpox. They have made progressions in areas of communication plans, isolation and quarantine, environmental control, and checklist for different levels of government.
Humans are believed to have first been infected by smallpox 12,000 years ago, when people began domesticating animals in the time of the earliest agricultural settlements (Youngerman 14; Greenspan 3). In fact, “Ramses V…looks to have had the raised bumps on his face and body for which smallpox was named…,” proving that smallpox may have predated the New Kingdom of Egypt (1570 B.C.—1085 B.C.) (Greenspan 3). Contrary to prior investigation, the most virulent strain of smallpox originated in sub-Saharan Africa, rather than Asia (Porter 36). This information led to the advanced belief that the Atlantic Slave Trade unleashed smallpox and, consequently, death (Porter 36). Although sub-Saharan Africa held the deadliest strain of smallpox, the constant
The earliest case of smallpox according to a journal published in the US National Library of Medicine titled, “Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox and Vaccination” was recorded as early as 1122 BC. (Riedel “Smallpox the Origin of a Disease”). Mankind’s triumph over this horrible disease was initiated by an English doctor named Edward Jenner. Through observations and experimentation, Jenner would create a procedure now known as vaccination. (Riedel “Edward Jenner”). During the next two centuries, vaccinations would be used worldwide to stop the spread of small pox. After the successful worldwide vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organization, small pox was eradicated worldwide in 1980. As a result of the eradication of smallpox according
“And so the most successful way of combating smallpox before the discovery of vaccination was inoculation.Inoculation referred to the subcutaneous instillation of smallpox virus into non-immune individuals”(UTUBE).In Europe, new methods of variolation also known as inoculation became quickly known among European doctors. “Since there was also a demand for protection against smallpox, physicians soon began the variolation procedure on a massive scale. Although 2% to 3% of variolated persons died or suffered from diseases transmitted by the procedure itself,
Until the development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, inoculation using the live smallpox virus was the only way to protect people from the deadly disease. Those inoculated had a chance of contracting the full virus and potentially dying from the disease. When Edward Jenner discovered that he could use a similar disease found in cattle, he began the modern era of vaccination (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2015). Over the next 200 years, smallpox was essentially driven extinct by vaccination programs. Due to vaccines, a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone now only exists in a Center for Disease Control laboratory. (Flight, 2011).
Smallpox was once one of the most feared diseases, it has killed about 300 million people in the 20th century. Smallpox was once a very feared disease and for good reason. Smallpox was one of the worst diseases to exist. The symptoms were almost unbearable and some lifelong.It killed thousands of people. And there is no cure.