Pox Americana was the well - written book by the American author Elizabeth A. Fenn whose interest in the smallpox epidemic grew while she was studying as an undergraduate at university. After studying the fur trade of Native Americans, and learning that smallpox spread like a wild fire between native nations across the country. Her interest was instantaneous and she wanted to find out more about the epidemic that not only affected all of us in the country, but even George Washington’s army during the American revolution. 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. In the start of chapter 1, Elizabeth goes over the effects that pox has on our bodies over time. The very first steps of this …show more content…
These people usually passed away before even the telltale symptoms of a rash, bumps and fever even started. Why is this so? Because these people experienced no exposure whatsoever to these types of diseases, as soon as the Spanish and white men started moving into their land and country, they were slowing being exposed to foreign diseases like syphilis and smallpox. One great example of being open to exposure would be Christopher Columbus accidently finding the Americas. Now when Columbus took over this new land and captured everyone living on it, the people slowly started to find themselves getting sick from things they had never experienced before. You then started seeing people die off faster from sickness than from the slavery and
The first case of smallpox was found on the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses V in the 3rd Century BCE. After Egypt, in the 4th Century, variola is thought to have spread to China, where people prayed to the god Yo Hoa Long to try to prevent themselves getting sick, of course, this was to no prevail. After spreading to China, because of the increasing trade with Japan and Korea, smallpox spread even further. This deadly pathogen spread quickly, as somebody only needed to be breathed on, and they could be infected. During the 7th century, smallpox was widespread throughout India and was quickly spreading towards northern Africa, Spain, and Portugal because of the expansion of Arabic people. 300 years later, in the 10th century, variola crept into Asia Minor and modern-day Portugal. During the Crusades in the 11th century, smallpox spread further throughout Europe and infect many more unsuspecting people. Smallpox spreads to northern England, which was previously not affected by this deadly disease. When Smallpox spread to Northern England, it caused multiple outbreaks that traveled as far north as Iceland. Smallpox at this point had already killed people from Egypt all the way to Northern Europe and was not stopping there. In the 15th-16th Century, smallpox was spread through Portuguese traders into Africa. European colonization and the African slave trade spread Variola
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.
This article was unique to read because it was actually selected excerpts from the Cumberland House journals of 1781 and 1782. Each excerpt described what kind of person was being affected such as age and gender and then described where the smallpox rash was first noticed. Smallpox was first brought to Mexico by the Spaniards in 1520, later reached Massachusetts and extended west a century later. On each occasion, it occurred in an epidemic form with an extremely high mortality rate. This article describes the first recorded smallpox epidemic on the western plains. The excerpts were handwritten diaries of daily events. The chroniclers were William Tomison and Matthew Cocking. Tomison’s account of the smallpox epidemic just 20 years before Jenner
“The symptoms of smallpox, or the “speckled monster” as it was known in 18th-century England, appeared suddenly and the effects were devastating.
There are several different kinds of communicable diseases in today’s society. Smallpox happens to be one. Smallpox is considered to be a contagious, and fatal infectious disease. Smallpox has been existence for over 200 years, and the first known outbreak strated in Eruope and traveled to India and parts of Asia. “The pox part of smallpox is derived from the Latin word for “spotted” and refers to the raised bumps that appear on the face and body of an infected person,” (CDC, 2016, para 1). Smallpox is caused by the Variola virus. There are two clinical forms of smallpox, Variola major and minor. The most common form of smallpox is Variola major which is the most severe. “The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1949. The last
The symtoms made it so eventually the person couldn’t get out of bed, for example fever headaches, vomiting, chills and muscle pain but by far the worst of all was the bumps(papules) on the skin, the worse the papules were the less likely the person was to survive. If the person was lucky enough to survive they would be left with horrible scars. People with the scars were left horribly disfigured, blind or sterile and
The duration of the infection can be divided into a number of stages from the incubation period to the resolution of scabs. After incubation, the first symptoms emerge such as malaise, high fever, muscle pains and sometimes vomiting. This is known as the prodrome phase which lasts 2 to 4 days. Smallpox is most contagious following the appearance of the rash, usually occurring around the 12th to 15th day. The first lesions appear on the mucous membranes of the mouth and throat and then rupture releasing large amounts of the virus into the saliva. Around the time the sores rupture in the mouth, a rash starts appearing on the rest of the body, particularly on the face, arms and legs. The last lesions appear 24 to 36 hours after the onset and no further sores appear. By around the 3rd or 4th day of the rash, the sores expand and are filled with a pus-like fluid. This stage lasts roughly a week, during which the lesions start leaking fluid, deflating and scabbing over. By around day 16-20, all the sores will have scabbed over and will start falling off leaving slight indented scars. It will take around 6 days for all the scabs to fall off, which then makes the person no longer contagious. (CDC Emergency Risk Communication
Smallpox is only infectious disease to ever be eradicated worldwide. It was one of the most frightening diseases, from its very long history, to its many variants, to the symptoms of the often lethal disease, to the incredibly high deaths, to the treatments that helped end it, to the final eradication of the disease, to its containment, to the fears of it being used in bioterrorism today.
Smallpox has been a feared disease throughout history due to huge epidemics resulting in a large number of deaths (Carson- Dewitt 2006). The name Smallpox, or the Variola Virus, was common around 570 AD and introduced by Bishop Marious of Avenches. Variola derives from the Latin word various meaning stained or various or mark on the skin (Milton 2012). Milder patterns of the virus can be called cotton pox, white pox, and the Cuban itch (OMICS International 2006). The word smallpox was first used in 15th century England in order to tell the difference between syphilis called “great pocks”, and the variola virus (Riley 2006).
Have you ever wondered why smallpox is so deadly? Or why the disease spreads so wildly on the skin of a person? In today’s society most people don’t know what the lethal virus that has taken a great toll on their ancestor’s lives was. Smallpox has ruined human beings throughout the years. The disease has taken lives from all different age groups. Today I will be talking about how the disease affects a person, the biology of the organism, and the economic costs.
If smallpox was genetically mutated and put into a country like India or china, because they both have high population, it would spread extremely quickly. Smallpox was a highly contagious disease, meaning if the pathogen mutated and become airborne and waterborne, it would become a super virus. Once the virus has become that contagious all that is left is for it to become
Small Pox is an infectious disease that causes a fever and rash. The term “pox” comes from the Latin word for spotted. It also refers to the raised bumps that appear on the face and body of an infected person. Small Pox is cause by the Variola virus that appeared many years ago. There are two rudimentary patterns of small pox: Variola minor and Variola major, which is the worst and most common of the two. The earliest known death was Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses. Could it be a coincidence that the disease also originated from Eygpt? Edward Jenner was the “man” in 1796. He was experimenting and proved that small pox was closely related to cow pox. He would then make a key breakthrough in his discovery by concluding that it would protect against smallpox.
Smallpox is a transmittable disease, and a deadly one that has affected humans for thousands of years, also known as Variola. It was developed worldwide in 1980. Currently there are no treatments or cure are available for smallpox, although the vaccination’s side effects is too risky for the people who are at low risk to the deadly virus. The symptoms of smallpox will appear around twelve to fourteen days after the person received the disease. A person who has been incubated will stay there from seven to seventeen days. They will look and feel healthy and cannot spread the disease to others. During the incubation period the signs and symptoms include, fever, headache, severe fatigue, vomiting, and discomfort. After a couples days a red,
Smallpox is caused by a virus called “Variola Major” and “Variola Minor” which causes the skin to rash up all over the body. It is very infections and can often cause death. Smallpox can be contracted by human contacted. Small pox was first discovered 3000 years in Egypt and/or India. The first documented death was the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses V”. Many people were infected by this, which ended up destroying world emperors. Which caused cities to fall. There was and is no cure available for Smallpox but vaccinations can be used to significantly reduce the infection from occurring. The disease Is the worst disease in history because in the 20th century it Is approximated that over 300 million people died because of it. The disease is known to
No disease has had such a profound impact on humanity as smallpox. The Plague of Antonine, “with a death toll of between three and a half to seven million, hastened the decline of the Roman Empire” (Panic, 23). European explorers, bringing the disease to the New World, helped bring about the fall of the Aztec and Incan empires. In the eighteenth century, “400,000 people a year died from smallpox” (Panic, 23).