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In 1799, the physician Valentine Seaman administered the first smallpox vaccine in the United States. He gave his children a smallpox vaccination using a serum acquired from Edward Jenner , the British physician who invented the vaccine from fluid taken from cowpox lesions.
In the United States, from 1843 to 1855, first Massachusetts and then other states required smallpox vaccination. Although some disliked these measures, [89] coordinated efforts against smallpox went on, and the disease continued to diminish in the wealthy countries.
- 1 to 3 weeks following exposure
- Brincidofovir
- variola major virus, variola minor virus (spread between people)
- Supportive care
Mar 26, 2024 · Smallpox was one of the first diseases to be controlled by a vaccine. In 1967 the World Health Organization (WHO) began a global vaccination program against smallpox, and in 1980 the disease was officially declared eradicated in the wild. Stocks of variola major were subsequently maintained in the United States and Russia.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- What causes smallpox?Smallpox is caused by infection with variola major, a virus of the family Poxviridae. A less-virulent form of smallpox, called alastrim, is caused...
- What was the mortality rate of smallpox?For centuries smallpox was one of the world’s most-dreaded plagues, killing as many as 30 percent of its victims, most of them children.
- Could a person be reinfected with smallpox?People who survived smallpox were permanently immune to a second infection, though they faced a lifetime of disfigurement and, in some cases, blind...
- When did the last known case of smallpox occur?The last endemic case of smallpox (actually an infection of variola minor) was recorded in Somalia in 1977. No cases were reported from 1977 to 198...
- Is monkeypox related to smallpox?Monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, which is a member of Poxviridae, the same virus family that causes smallpox and cowpox.
May 7, 2015 · Many historians speculate that smallpox likewise brought about the devastating Plague of Athens in 430 B.C. and the Antonine Plague of A.D. 165 to 180, the later of which killed an estimated 3.5...
- Jesse Greenspan
- 1 min
Even when victims survived, smallpox often left the survivors scarred for life. Although the first smallpox vaccine appeared in 1796, outbreaks continued well into the 1900s. Large-scale vaccination finally eliminated smallpox from the United States in 1949, but the disease spread freely in other parts of the world for three more decades.
After a final outbreak in the United States in 1949, the virus was declared eradicated in 1980 following a successful vaccination program regarded as one of the greatest triumphs of modern medicine.
By 1901, as the epidemic spread to northern states, incidence rapidly declined in southern states, ranging from less than one per population in Texas, to more than 300 cases per population in North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Annual smallpox notifications peaked nationally in 1901 at 56 857 cases (Figure 2 ).
