Difference between revisions of "Smallpox"
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Smallpox is an acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of pimples that blister, produce pus, and form pockmarks. It is also called variola. <ref>http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/about/terms/glossary.htm#s</ref> | Smallpox is an acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of pimples that blister, produce pus, and form pockmarks. It is also called variola. <ref>http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/about/terms/glossary.htm#s</ref> | ||
| + | The last case of smallpox occurred in 1977. It is tacitly acknowledged that the US and Russia each have stores of the otherwise eradicated virus. It is not known if other rogue states, such as North Korea, may also have stores. Because of the relative danger of the vaccine, and the eradication of the illness through vaccination programs, it is not felt that vaccination should be resumed, despite the possibility of the virus's use as a bioweapon. First responders are sometimes vaccinated. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 03:17, July 3, 2007
Smallpox is an acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of pimples that blister, produce pus, and form pockmarks. It is also called variola. [1] The last case of smallpox occurred in 1977. It is tacitly acknowledged that the US and Russia each have stores of the otherwise eradicated virus. It is not known if other rogue states, such as North Korea, may also have stores. Because of the relative danger of the vaccine, and the eradication of the illness through vaccination programs, it is not felt that vaccination should be resumed, despite the possibility of the virus's use as a bioweapon. First responders are sometimes vaccinated.
