LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Smallpox
built 645 days ago
Smallpox is an extremely infectious disease, with severe morbidity, and a mortality rate of at least 30%. Since contact within 30 feet of a case will cause infection, a biowarfare release causing only a small number of initial infections would rapidly spread within a few weeks to an epidemic. There is historical evidence of its lethality as a biowarfare agent. During the French and Indian Wars, blankets from smallpox patients were given to native Indian populations by British soldiers, with subsequent epidemics killing up to 50% of affected tribes.
Source:
Smallpox is one of the classic childhood viral illnesses. The first written descriptions of smallpox are from early China where it was described as a disease from the west. Even before that, smallpox left physical evidence -- it has been found in ancient Egyptian mummies. The disease later spread as part of the great Islamic expansion across North Africa and into Spain. The ill-fated travel of the Crusades then brought it to the rest of Europe where for many generations it caused about 10 percent of all deaths every year.
Source:
Smallpox has an incubation period of about 12-14 days from the time of exposure to the onset of symptoms. The initial stage of the disease, the prodrome, consists of a high fever, severe body aches, headache and backache, as well as a generalized ill feeling that usually confines victims to bed. In a few days a characteristic rash appears in the mouth and throat, that quickly spreads to the face and arms, and then the legs and trunk. Initially the rash is maculopapular (red, raised bumps) that in 1-2 days becomes small, clear, fluid-filled blister-like lesions (vesicles). The fluid in the lesions eventually becomes cloudy (pustular), and then after about 8 or 9 days of the rash, the lesions become crusted over and scabs form. The scabs eventually separate, and pitted scars remain.
Source:
Smallpox lesions on skin are shown in this photograph taken in 1973 in Bangladesh. Smallpox infection was eliminated from the world in 1977. Smallpox is caused by variola virus with an incubation period of about 12 days following exposure. Initial symptoms include high fever, fatigue, and head and back aches. A characteristic rash, most prominent on the face, arms, and legs, follows in 2-3 days. The rash starts with flat red lesions that evolve at the same rate.
Source:
Smallpox begins with chills, fever, backache, headache and vomiting. A fever of l03 to l04 degrees F is customary. The high fever increases the healing activities of the cells, and it is a most efficient way to accomplish the needed detoxification. This means that the toxins are now out of the functioning cells and in the blood near the skin. The body no longer needs to speed up cellular metabolism in order to cast out the extraneous substances and the fever subsides. In about two days the fever, and other symptoms subside.
Source:
Smallpox is usually contracted through inhaling the virus and causes skin eruptions called papules (elevated bumps) and pustules (bumps containing fluid). An infected person is only contagious AFTER the skin eruptions have started. The disease usually runs a course of two weeks, punctuated by high fever both prior to and during the skin eruptions. Early symptoms often resemble the flu. The effected skin is usually left with multiple scars. Mortality of smallpox varies from 10 percent to 30 percent, depending on the age of the population.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Smallpox