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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]
Smallpox is caused by either of the two viruses, Variola major and Variola minor. Smallpox vaccine was available in Europe, the United States, and the Spanish Colonies during the last part of the century. [4] [5] The Latin names of this disease are Variola Vera. The words come from various (spotted) or varus (pimple).
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]
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 New World of the Western Hemisphere was devastated by the 1775–1782 North American smallpox epidemic. Estimates based on remnant settlements say at least 130,000 people were estimated to have died in the epidemic that started in 1775.
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.