Mousepox Model

Smallpox is an extremely deadly disease which, in one point in time, was the most feared disease on the planet. In the book Pox Americana, Elizabeth A. Fenn writes about the encounter with the deadly disease in the 1770's to the 1780's. Her book was first published in 2001 in New York City, where she originally wrote it. Her book contains just under 400 words that explain the disease, some of the first encounters with it, who and where it affected people, and how they got the epidemic under control. Pox Americana is a very informative book that teaches the reader various things.

Smallpox is formally known as the Variola virus. Smallpox is a viral infection creating pustules that more than likely will leave scars. This infectious disease creates high fevers and major fatigue in individuals. Smallpox is another disease that reflects the primary goal of vaccinations, eradication. As of today, research has shown that smallpox is the only disease that has been completely eradicated due to vaccinations. With this being said, the allowance of discontinuation of routine immunizations has been set in place. Children who receive these vaccinations only receive one dosage of the vaccination to prevent smallpox. Unlike many other diseases, children receive one to two, maybe even three doses to prevent a certain disease ("Disease Eradication"). The last case of smallpox in the United States was last reported in 1948 and the last case of smallpox in the world was last reported in 1948, in Somalia ("Smallpox Disease

What is smallpox? The internet has defined it as an “acute contagious immune disease, with fever and pustules (small bumps on the skin filled with pus) that will usually will leave scars.” Smallpox originated in India and Egypt over 3,000 years ago. After that it slowly started to progress to other areas across the world. It then started to show itself in places like Africa, Europe and then after a few years later, finally made it’s way into the Americas during the 1500’s.

Smallpox is a virus that was first founded in ancient times. The virus?s proper name is Variola rex, and it has various different forms as well as various symptoms. Among these forms are typical smallpox, hemorrhagic smallpox, and malignant smallpox, all of which usually always cause death in their victims. Some of the typical symptoms of smallpox include red vesicles and pustules all over, bleeding from all orifices of the body, swelling in the face, throat, and eyes, difficulty eating and swallowing, delirium, malaise, deterioration of the bone marrow, lymph nodes and mucus membranes of the body, and a multitude of other secondary symptoms. Smallpox is typically diagnosed by ruling out the possibility of other

Smallpox is a viral infection caused by Variola major. This infection is currently one of the most dreaded diseases, and is believed to be more dangerous than the enemy’s sword. The exposure is usually an infection of the respiratory tract. After exposure, early symptoms are: headaches, back aches, fever, vomiting, discomfort, and feeling out of sorts. These symptoms go away usually in two days, and the patient feels better. Then about two days later, the patient has a flustered face, and lesions on the mouth, throat, and nasal membranes. At 5 days past exposure, red rashes and bumps appear on the skin, bleeding through skin, and mucous membranes. If the patients bleeds through their eyes, gums, or nose, the patient will not live much longer, but that is not usually the case. The bumps may touch each other or they may be separate from each other. If the bumps do not touch, the patients has a good chance of surviving. But if the bumps do touch, the patient has a forty percent chance of surviving. Dehydration is common in patients because it may be painful or difficult to drink. Around day ten, the bumps will become soft, and blisters will form. The fluid in the bumps is absorbed because of dehydration. A smell often comes from cracked bumps, and a second bacterial infection may occur due to the openings in the body. Two weeks after initial symptoms, the bumps and blisters are replaced by scabs. One week later the fever disappears, the patient returns to a normal life, and the

Smallpox is extremely dangerous because there is no known cure. Smallpox can spread through the air and physical contact with the pox marks or anything that the pox marks touch. The Variola Virus spread so quickly that it caused over 50 million infections per year. Symptoms of Smallpox include vomiting, chills, fever, rashes, malaise, blisters,

There are a couple symptoms to smallpox, mostly affecting your skin. The first couple of days, it will begin with normal symptoms of a fever. Eventually, there will be body aches, headaches, and you will begin to feel weaker. Small, round blisters appear all around the body. Within a week, the pox becomes filled with pus and gets bigger. Then eventually, the blisters crust and stomach pains will most likely occur. Within the next couple of weeks, the blisters become scabs and they fall off, which result in scars on the skin. You could get scars, blindness and your hands and feet could get deformed. The scars stay on your body.

Smallpox was once one of the most severe infectious diseases that was endemic throughout the world for most of the recorded history. It is caused by variola virus (a DNA virus and a member of the Poxviridae family), and characterized by three phases: incubation, prodrome and rash. This disease killed and disfigured innumerable millions of people globally.

Smallpox is an acute contagious viral disease, with fever and pustules usually leaving permanent scars. Although there is no cure, there is a vaccine that can help protect you from it. It is called vaccinia and is a poxvirus closely related to the smallpox. Live vaccinia infects the people but it does not make them sick. A smallpox particle can either make or consist of around two hundred different types of protein. In the center of the mulberry of a smallpox particle, there is an odd shape that looks like a dumbbell, this is the

Smallpox doesn’t seem to show as many similar symptoms as typhoid fever. Its symptoms include a very high level of contagiousness, high fever, vomiting, headache, postules, possible blindness, possible male infertility, and immunity to fatal relapse (Kiple). This disease shows symptoms similar to those of the plague, but some are different than those of typhoid. This disease, like typhoid, existed before or at the time of the plague (Kiple). Some cases of smallpox were found in ancient Egypt, which is one of the places where the plague started before it carried over to Greece (Kiple). Kiple writes in his article, “The face, neck, and shoulders of the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses V, who died in 1157 B.C, is disfigured by a rash of elevated postules.” This quote shows that smallpox existed long before the plague and also caused postules similar to those of the plague. There are a couple reasons why it may not have been the cause, but the main is because it did not yield a product when being tested on dental pulps (Papagrigorakis). Another reason is because in some countries, smallpox only affected children, while the plague affected everyone. Then again, if a Pharaoh had been infected, assuming they are an adult, and they brought the disease over to Greece. There is a big chance that smallpox affected all ages in Greece as well, therefore making it a possible cause of the

Given its rapid and deadly spread, conquers would place an exposed garment within enemy territory and wait. The virus would wipe out entire civilizations in a matter of months. Smallpox spreads rapidly throughout the lymph nodes. The infected person will remain asymptomatic through day 3-4 while the virus works its way through the spleen and bone marrow. This makes for a somewhat anonymous attack. Infection only requires a brief encounter with an exposed person or object. The exposer could appear to be completely healthy. Symptoms do not begin to surface until the 8-12th-day toxemia and fever are occurring. The virus then localizes in the small blood vessels of the dermis. In the earlier years, these symptoms were often confused with other illness. It isn't until approximately day 14, the patient is apparently infectious. The spleen, liver, kidneys, bone marrow and other viscera will contain large amounts of the virus. Lesions on the skin start forming as the capillaries dilate and the endothelial tissues swell. Now, even a lay person can make a visual diagnosis. The plasma cells and macrophages can be seen. The cells increase in size, the cell membranes rupture, leading to vesicular lesions. Migration of polymorphonuclear cells into the vesicles cause postulation. A pustule becomes slowly desiccated causing the crusty/scabby appearance of the lesions. The progression of the disease makes it the perfect weapon. At the point in time that the first infected person is visually diagnosed, they have potentially infected numerous people around them. Causing the deadly virus to almost instantly reach epidemic proportions. In the early days of Smallpox, someone or something had to be the contaminant jeopardizing both civilizations. Today with the conveniences we have such as air travel, running water, and complete mobilization the virus could be easily placed in our society. Given our

Smallpox had a very large timeline that affected many. First, smallpox was present in the Egyptian Empire, in a written description the virus clearly resembled smallpox, Later in about the 6th century increased trade with China and Korea introduced smallpox to Japan. Then, smallpox was widespread into India. Arab expansion then spreads smallpox to Africa, Spain, and Portugal. Last, The virus spreads everywhere. From travelers, people trading and, even just being in the same room of someone else who was infected. One more thing is, George

Smallpox comes from variola major virus. It is transmitted through inhalation by droplet infection (contact with contagious body fluids). Individuals can also become infected through direct contact with contaminated clothing or bedding. There are two types of smallpox. The Variola virus; major and minor. The more deadly form of the virus, Variola major, generally killed up to twenty five percent of the people infected and accounted for over ninety percent of all cases (Sherman, 2007). Populations that had never been exposed to the virus would however have fatality rates that would exceed fifty percent. The Variola minor pathogen had a rate of death that was much lower. At two percent it was more common in Europe in the17th century before the deadlier pathogen of the virus was reintroduced. It then became a common and

Just like the bubonic plague, there are also variations to smallpox. For instance, there are two clinical forms of smallpox, variola major and variola minor (CDC para. 2). Variola major is the more severe and common of the two, characterized by a more extensive rash and higher fever (CDC para. 2). There are four types of variola major smallpox. There is ordinary, the most common type; modified, which is mild and occurs in previously vaccinated people; flat, which is very rare and brutal; and hemorrhagic, which is also very infrequent and severe (CDC para. 2). The symptoms of

Imagine a quick spreading rash throughout the entire body, leaving not a single space behind; every opening and crevice in your body, including your mouth and eyes covered in painful bumps accompanied by high fever and severe body aches. Flat red spots transforming into fluid-filled lesions and soon oozing out yellow pus, evidently emitting a pungent odor to anyone who dared get close. The live virus present in the darkening crusty scabs that would soon fall off only to leave behind a deep pitted scarred filled complexion on anyone who was fortunate enough to survive. These scars would be forever remembered as the hallmark for the smallpox epidemic which tormented the world for over 3,000 years. (Riedel “Deadly Diseases”).