The Smallpox Virus

The smallpox virus was once one of the most feared diseases in the world, and for good reason. Variola was a contagious virus that caused fever and painful, pus filled blisters all over the body. Victims had about a one fourth chance of survival, and survivors were covered with small, pitted scars and sometimes blinded or arthritic. Popping sporadically up in various civilizations, smallpox left a trail of destruction through two thousand plus years of mankind’s history. The story of smallpox is a prime example of spectacular medical triumph and the inability of humans to coexist peacefully.
One instance of this disease’s wholesale devastation on a civilization is the Native American Smallpox epidemic of 1763. The epidemic of 1763 was
Gaining blankets used in a Smallpox hospital, Colonel Boquet distributed them among the Native Americans as gifts. The resulting epidemic raged through the native people, killing at least 90% of them. When more settlers arrived there was very little to stop them from taking anything they wanted. This made it much easier for the British to colonize North America.
One of the first attempts to control smallpox was a method called insufflation, which later morphed into inoculation. Invented in China around 950 A.D., insufflation was a process in which smallpox scabs were picked off a recovering person or someone with a less severe infection, crushed, and blown up another person's nose.1 The purpose was to infect people with a mild case that they would probably recover from.
Donald Henderson) made a bold move to eradicate (eliminate) smallpox. Since the development and use of the smallpox vaccine, the disease had been slowly declining, and WHO thought they could finish it off.
WHO began by going to countries where smallpox was widespread and giving large amounts of people vaccinations. This was not effective because they could never vaccinate enough people in these programs. The disease kept coming back. So WHO changed strategies. Instead of mass vaccination programs, WHO located smallpox victims, quarantined their entire villages, and vaccinated everyone.
This strategy was so effective that by 1977, Smallpox was isolated to the African continent and by 1980, naturally transmitted smallpox was obliterated. The last victim Variola ever claimed was Janet Parker(1938-1978), a medical photographer. Parker most likely contracted the disease through the virus wafting up to her by way of an air vent in Birmingham (England) University Medical School. Although the facility was improperly equipped to store the virus and smallpox should have never been housed there, this occurrence raised concerns that variola could escape from a laboratory and infect the