A highly infectious and often fatal disease caused by a virus and characterized by fever, headache, and severe pimples that result in extensive scarring. Smallpox was once a dreaded killer of children and caused the deaths of millions of Native Americans after the arrival of European settlers in...
Despite its name, the monkeypox virus does not come from monkeys. Although the reservoir (an animal that is the source of infection) is unknown, the most likely animal sources are small rodents (for example, squirrels) in the rain forests of Africa, mostly in western and central Africa. Th...
Usually, you won’t show symptoms of smallpox for about 10-12 days after you've been exposed to someone infected with the virus. But the incubation period (the number of days it takes for symptoms to appear after you’re infected with the virus) can be as little as 7 days or as lon...
Both these strains were very effective, and it was possible to eliminate the virus. The epidemic following a bioterrorist attack would probably be quite different from what we have experienced in the endemic cases. There would suddenly be a large number of infected persons in the first and ...
Smallpox vaccine is a "live" vaccine, and the virus can "shed" from your injection site. Until the scab falls off, your vaccination sore will be contagious and could spread the virus to others for up to 4 weeks. Get medical help if someone in your household shows signs of smallpox: ...
Critics include those who advance the claims of earlier "discoveries" of vaccination, those who believe Jenner's vaccine was merely attenuated smallpox virus and that he...doi:10.1016/B978-1-4377-1604-7.00380-8Inger K. DamonGoldman's Cecil Medicine (Twenty-Fourth Edition)Inger K.Damon. Small...
Smallpox vaccine live contains live vaccinia virus that can be transmitted to individuals who have close contact with the vaccinee and the risks in contacts are the same as those for the vaccinee. The risk for experiencing serious vaccination complications must be weighed against the risk of expe...
and then they are as well as before their inoculation.” However, there was some risk using a live virus. About 3% of those inoculated developed serious smallpox and died. Others spent weeks recovering, but that was preferable to catching smallpox with its mortality rate of 20–40% and sca...
Variola virus, the cause of smallpox, and vaccinia virus, used in smallpox immunization, are both orthopoxviruses that are associated with serious ocular complications, including eyelid and conjunctival infection, corneal ulceration, disciform keratitis, iritis, optic neuritis, and blindness. About...
The vaccine used to eradicate smallpox is a live vaccinia virus, a close relative of variola. In the U.S., the most widely used version of the vaccine is an attenuated New York City Board of Health strain of vaccinia manufactured by Wyeth and licensed under the trade name Dryvax®. ...