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Smallpox Research Paper

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Smallpox
Smallpox is a highly contagious and fatal disease; there is no treatment available to smallpox, and the only way to avoid this infection is through primary prevention measures of vaccination. Smallpox has two clinical forms, variola major (most common) and variola minor (least common) with a fatality rate of 30% and 1% respectively. Variola major has four types of smallpox, ordinary (accounts for 90% of the cases), modified (occurs in vaccinated individuals), hemorrhagic (severe and rare), and flat or malignant (rare and fatal). Smallpox has been declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980, and vaccination of the general public has stopped shortly after; nevertheless, it is an agent of bioterrorism that is available in laboratory stockpiles worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004). …show more content…

2 to 4 days after the incubation period, the infected person develops the initial symptoms of fever, chills, head and body aches, and vomit; then, the infected person becomes contagious. Afterward, a rash develops on and in the oral cavity area of the infected person causing the infected to become most contagious. After which, the rash develops to pustular rash, and the infected remains infectious. When the pustules form a crust and then a scab, the infected continue to be contagious. It is only after the scabs resolve and fall off, the infected is no longer infectious (World Health Organization,

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