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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.
Smallpox was a dangerous disease caused by the variola major virus. 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.
Smallpox expert D. A. Henderson has been foremost in favor of destruction, while U.S. Army scientist Peter Jahrling has argued against it on the basis that further research is needed, since he believes that smallpox almost certainly exists outside of the repositories. [11] Other scientists have expressed similar opinions. [12]
The General Court, colonial Massachusetts' legislating body, moved from Boston to Cambridge at summer's end, but smallpox cases began appearing in Cambridge in August. [10] James Franklin's The New England Courant was founded in August amid the outbreak and the issue of smallpox and preservation from it became front page news. [5]
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]
Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms like fever, chills and body aches. ... Compared with the same period last year, the agency said cases are up 160% ...
The 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic was a smallpox outbreak that started in Victoria on Vancouver Island and spread among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and into the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau, killing a large portion of natives from the Puget Sound region to Southeast Alaska.
Smallpox, a disease caused by the variola virus, is considered so deadly that only two labs in the world are authorized to store samples of the virus, including one in Russia and the other at the ...