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The clearest description of smallpox from pre-modern times was given in the 9th century by the Persian physician, Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi, known in the West as "Rhazes", who was the first to differentiate smallpox from measles and chickenpox in his Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah (The Book of Smallpox and Measles). [27]
The Massachusetts smallpox epidemic or colonial epidemic was a smallpox outbreak that hit Massachusetts in 1633. [1] Smallpox outbreaks were not confined to 1633 however, and occurred nearly every ten years. [2] Smallpox was caused by two different types of variola viruses: variola major and variola minor. [3]
During the 1770s, smallpox killed at least 30% (tens of thousands) of the Northwestern Native Americans. [74] [75] The smallpox epidemic of 1780–1782 brought devastation and drastic depopulation among the Plains Indians. [76] By 1832, the federal government of the United States established a smallpox vaccination program for Native Americans. [77]
The most common type of smallpox, ordinary, historically has devastated populations with a 30% death rate. The smallpox virus is transmittable through bodily fluids and materials contaminated with infected materials. Generally, face-to-face contact is required for an individual to contract smallpox as a result of an interaction with another human.
The Mandan villages consisted of 12 to 100 lodges and were well organized with a hierarchy of leaders. In 1750, there were about nine large Mandan villages, however, by the start of the 1800s, the smallpox epidemic decreased the tribe to only two villages. By 1837, there were about 100 to 150 Mandan survivors. [3]
The smallpox vaccination used calf lymph, which was unacceptable to vegetarians and anti-vivisectionists who were growing in number from the mid 19th century.
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. [7] [11] The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, [10] making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date.
Onesimus (late 1600s–1700s [1]) was an African (likely Akan) man who was instrumental in the mitigation of smallpox in Boston, Massachusetts.. He introduced his enslaver, Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather, to the principle and procedure of the variolation method of inoculation, which prevented smallpox and laid the foundation for the development of vaccines.