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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.
He was transferred to Cardinal Hayes Convalescent Home for Children, a Catholic nursing facility in Millbrook, New York. He subsequently developed a rash and fever. It was later determined that he had smallpox and was the source of infection for three others at the facility, including a 62-year-old nun, a 5-year-old boy, and a 2-year-old girl.
The smallpox vaccine is used to prevent smallpox infection caused by the variola virus. [10] It is the first vaccine to have been developed against a contagious disease. In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus conferred immunity against the deadly smallpox virus.
No treatment is available, and the only protection is vaccination. The virus is usually transmitted by prolonged face-to-face contact with a person showing symptoms. The incubation period averages 12–14 days. [18] One of the most feared diseases of human history, smallpox was still causing an estimated 2 million deaths every year as late as 1967.
The words come from various (spotted) or varus (pimple). In England, this disease was first known as the "pox" or the "red plague". Smallpox settles itself in small blood vessels of the skin and in the mouth and throat. The symptoms of smallpox are rash on the skin and blisters filled with raised liquid. [citation needed]
Roughly 1 million adults in the U.S. seek hospital care due to pneumonia and 50,000 people die from it each year. "Pneumonia can become dangerous if it goes unrecognized and untreated.
The introduction of an animal disease into a human body was thought disgusting and some even "feared their metamorphosis into horned beasts". But the treatment's efficacy was several times demonstrated in the years which followed, when Jesty's two elder sons, exposed to smallpox, failed to catch the disease. [3] [4] [6]
With Orange County declaring a health emergency due to high RSV cases, concern about the virus is peaking. Here's what you should know about it.