LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Smallpox: Persons
built 238 days ago
Smallpox is most easily spread from person-to-person by the inhalation of respiratory droplets. Smallpox can ... be spread by contact with contaminated clothing or bed linens used by an infected person because the virus can survive on objects for up to one week. Smallpox is not spread by insects or animals.
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Smallpox is a virus that causes an illness with high fever and a severe rash. The virus is contagious, but less contagious than influenza and chickenpox. However, up to one-third of persons who are infected with the smallpox virus could die.
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Smallpox is highly contagious. A person with smallpox becomes most contagious with the onset of rash, but because the early rash can be missed, they are presumed infectious from the time the fever starts. At this stage, the person is almost always very sick and not able to move around in the community. The infected person is contagious until the last smallpox scab falls off. Smallpox is most often spread by the respiratory secretions of people with smallpox to people who have close (< 6 ft) face to face contact. Less often it is spread through direct contact with smallpox lesions of the skin and mucous membranes, or through contact with materials (e.g., bedding, clothing) contaminated by such lesions or scabs.
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Smallpox is highly contagious from one person to another. It is most contagious during the first week, and is spread from saliva droplets. It may continue to be contagious until the scabs from the rash fall off. It may ... be spread from bed sheets and clothing.
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Smallpox was officially declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1979, and inoculation of military personnel was suspended in 1990. But after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent cases of anthrax sent through the mail, the government began vaccinating military personnel and many health care workers, with 1.2 million vaccinated as of March of this year.
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Smallpox is caused by a virus. An infected person spreads virus particles into the air in the form of tiny droplets emitted from the mouth by speaking, coughing, or simply breathing. The virus can then infect anyone who inhales the droplets. By this means, smallpox can spread extremely rapidly from person to person.
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