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Definition: Smallpox from Black's Medical Dictionary, 43rd Edition

This is an acute, highly infectious disease due to a virus. Once it was one of the major killing diseases; however, in the 1960s the World Health Organisation undertook an eradication scheme by means of mass VACCINATION. As a result, the last naturally occurring case was recorded in October 1977, and on 8 May 1980 the World Health Assembly confirmed that smallpox has finally been eradicated from the world.

smallpox

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
acute, highly contagious disease causing a high fever and successive stages of severe skin eruptions. Occurring worldwide in epidemics, it killed up to 40% of those who contracted it and accounted for more deaths over time than any other infectious disease. Spreading to the New World with European colonization, it killed huge numbers of indigenous peoples, who had no immunity, greatly contributing to the annihilation of native cultures. It is unclear how ancient smallpox is. The disease had been believed to date from the time of ancient Egypt or before, on the basis of pockmarks found on ancient mummies, but a genetic study published in 2016 suggested that that the smallpox virus, or at least the form of it that produces deadly epidemic disease, may only date to the 16th cent. Smallpox is caused by a virus that may be airborne or spread by direct contact. After an incubation period of about two weeks, fever, aching, and prostration occur, lasting two or three days. An eruption then…
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Full text Article Smallpox

From Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health
A patient with smallpox (© CDC/Dr. Robinson)
Smallpox is an infection caused by the variola virus (either of two variants, Variola major or variola minor), a member of the poxvirus family. Throughout history, smallpox has been a greatly feared disease because it was responsible for worldwide epidemics that resulted in large numbers of deaths. …
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Full text Article Smallpox

From Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine
An adverse reaction to the smallpox vaccine,...
Smallpox is an infection caused by the variola virus, a member of the poxvirus family. Throughout history, smallpox was responsible for huge epidemics worldwide that resulted in large numbers of deaths. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that an extensive program of vaccination…
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Full text Article smallpox

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
acute, highly contagious disease causing a high fever and successive stages of severe skin eruptions. Occurring worldwide in epidemics, it killed up to 40% of those who contracted it and accounted for more deaths over time than any other infectious disease. Spreading to the New World with European…
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Full text Article Smallpox

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
Smallpox, a highly contagious, often fatal viral disease marked by high fever and skin eruptions that leave survivors severely disfigured, was one of the most deadly diseases that Europeans unwittingly brought to the Americas. Native Americans, lacking both immunity and experience with its ravages, …
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Full text Article Smallpox

From Health Reference Series: Global Pandemics and Epidemics and How They Relate to You Full text Article Major Pandemics and Epidemics
Smallpox Global Eradication—Timeline...
Thousands of years ago, the variola virus (smallpox virus) emerged and began causing illness and deaths in human populations, with smallpox outbreaks occurring from time to time. Smallpox is a serious infectious disease caused by the variola virus. People who had smallpox had a fever and a…
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Full text Article Smallpox

From Harvard Medical School Health Topics A-Z
Smallpox
What Is It? Smallpox is a contagious and sometimes fatal disease caused by two related viruses: variola major and variola minor. Variola major is the more common and severe form, with an overall historical fatality rate of about 30%. Variola minor is less common and causes a milder form of smallpox…
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Smallpox. The body of this modern...
Smallpox (variola) is an acute, febrile illness of humans caused by the variola virus, and characterized by a vesicular skin eruption. Its severe form (variola major) carries a case fatality rate of 25–40 % while the separate strain causing variola minor (alastrim), found mostly in Africa and South…
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Full text Article smallpox

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Acute, highly contagious viral disease, marked by aches, fever, vomiting, and skin eruptions leaving pitted scars. Widespread vaccination programmes have wiped out this often fatal disease. Smallpox was probably first brought to Europe by the returning crusaders, and as sea travel developed it was…
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Full text Article smallpox

From Environmental History and Global Change: A Dictionary of Environmental History
For many centuries one of the most feared human diseases. It probably existed in ancient times but seems to have become more virulent during the early-modern period. People who caught smallpox and survived were marked for life with pitted and scarred faces. It was supposedly introduced into England…
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Full text Article Historical Smallpox

From Encyclopedia of Microbiology
000 Abstract Smallpox was the most serious and feared of all pestilential diseases with a history dating back to the time of the Pharaohs. It was a severe, febrile virus disease that caused a distinctive rash and spread from person to person; there was no animal reservoir. It affected all countries…
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