Smallpox has been a threat to life and health for millennia; the 19th century discovery that it could be prevented by an injection of serum from a cow (vacca is Latin for cow) was a huge advance in healthcare, and lead to the eventual elimination of the disease. In 2012, not a single person on the entire planet is infected with smallpox.
From the World Health Organization site:"Smallpox is an acute contagious disease, caused by the variola virus. It is transmitted from person to person via infected aerosols and droplets from infected symptomatic people. Symptoms appear 12–14 days after infection, and include fever, malaise, headache, prostration, severe back pain, and sometimes abdominal pain and vomiting. After 2–3 days, the body temperature falls and a rash appears, first on the face, hands and forearms, and later on the trunk. Following a global WHO-led immunization campaign, smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980. It no longer occurs naturally, but stocks of the virus are still kept in 2 high-containment laboratories." -----------------------------------------------------------
To read the history of smallpox, and understand the extraordinary triumph that was the worldwide elimination of this disease, read the research report from the WHO click here.
MJoTA has been published since 2006 by Emerald Pademelon Press LLC. PO Box 381 Haddonfield, NJ 08033, USA. MJoTA.org, MedicalWritingInstitute.org and drsusanna.org host MJoTA, and the Medical Writing Institute, which is a New Jersey nonprofit corporation. Inquiries for the Medical Writing Institute or Emerald Pademelon Press LLC: publisher@mjota.org. Contact the publisher directly through email, Twitter, Linkedin