Smallpox

Let's begin with something easy to see, easy to digest. Smallpox for example.

Smallpox was a disease unique to humans caused by infection with either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known as Variola or Variola vera.

The localization is in small blood vessels of the skin, in the mouth and throat. In the skin, is manifested in a characteristic rash, and later, raised fluid-filled blisters.

Smallpox is believed to have emerged in human populations about 10.000 BC. The earliest and important physical evidence of smallpox is the pustular rash on the mummified body of Pharaoh Ramses V of Egypt himself. The disease killed an estimated 400.000 Europeans per year during the closing years of the 18th century, was responsible for a third of all blindness and for an estimated 300–500 million deaths during the 20th century.

After large vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO (World Health Organization) certified the eradication of Smallpox in 1979. The other infection disease that was eradicated is Rinderpest (RPV), last case been confirmed in 2011.

The infection is transmitted through inhalation of airborne variola virus, usually droplets expressed from the oral, nasal, or pharyngeal mucosa of an infected person. It is transmitted from one person to another through face-to-face contact with an infected person, usually within a distance of 6 feet (1.8 m), but an other way to be spread is through direct contact with infected body fluids or contaminated objects. The virus can even cross the placenta, but the incidence of congenital smallpox is relatively low.

Chickenpox was commonly confused with smallpox after eradication. Unlike smallpox, chickenpox does not usually affect the palms and soles. Additionally, at chickenpox the size of the pustules is varying due to variations in the timing of pustule eruption: smallpox pustules are nearly the same size since the viral effect progresses more uniformly. A variety of laboratory methods are available for detecting chickenpox in evaluation of suspected smallpox cases.

See you soon with new interesting and bizarre diseases.