Smallpox is one of the deadliest diseases known to mankind caused by the variola virus. The variola minor and variola major are two types of this virus. While the various minor is not so common or life-threatening, the various major virus has been known to cause widespread devastation. The smallpox disease is classified into four distinctive types, ordinary, modified, malignant and hemorrhagic. Highly contagious and easily capable of becoming an epidemic, the disease caused by the viola major killed large populations in earlier times, right up to the recent past. However, it has been successfully eradicated for close to 40 years now. The last known case of smallpox in the United States was in the year 1949. It was completely wiped out in the year 1980, thanks to persistent and effective vaccination programs by governments all over the world.
Severe abdominal pain, chills, high fever, a headache, intense back pain, and vomiting are symptoms of smallpox as revealed by medical records. After being infected by the variola virus, it can take anywhere between a week and 17 days for signs of the disease to show up. And during this incubation period of the virus, the infection is not communicable. These symptoms tend to disappear within 2-3 days and the affected person would seemingly feel better. However, it is only after this stage that rashes start to appear on the skin. These infectious rashes appeared on the face first and more precisely inside the mouth as sores. Subsequently, they spread to the hands, and from there the entire body was covered with these fluid-filled bumps that have a characteristic dent in the center.
Spread through body fluids such as saliva from close face-to-face contact with an infected person, the smallpox virus was also feared for the way it dispersed through the air in closed environments. Coughing, talking, sneezing, and sharing contaminated things between people lead to the proliferation of this infection.
There is no known cure for smallpox, but vaccinating against the disease to develop immunity as a preparation to fight the virus is quite helpful. Made from a virus called vaccinia, another virus related to the one causing smallpox, the vaccine can also cause other diseases and grave side effects. When the vaccination for smallpox is done within 3 days after exposure to the variola virus, it can prevent the onset of infection to a major extent or at least reduce the severity of the symptoms. Vaccination between the 4th and 7th day after being exposed to the smallpox virus also has benefits. It can protect against the disease to a certain extent and reduce or modify the severity of the symptoms. Continuous medical research is going on to develop antibiotics and antiviral drugs that can possibly be used as a means to reduce infections and as medicine to treat smallpox. One dose of the smallpox vaccine provides immunity against the disease for up to 5 years.
