Smallpox used to be found all over the world and was considered the greatest scourge in the history of mankind. It is one of the earliest known human ailments, and at the same time it is the cause of the highest number of deaths of all epidemic diseases.Treatment of smallpox is only symptomatic, the antibiotic is administered only in the case of bacterial superinfections.
In this article, Niketrainers.com.co will tell you:
Small pox
Smallpox (or black pox) is an acute, viral, infectious disease. It is caused by the smallpox virus. The smallpox virus belongs to the genusOrthopoxvirus. It is one of the largest and most complex viruses, and only a few particles are needed to become infected. Man can also become infected with the virus of monkey pox, cowpox and vaccinia. The infection is transmitted through droplets or through direct contact, through contaminated clothing or bedding. The source of infection is man at every stage of the disease. Smallpox incubation period is on average 12-14 days. Mortality in unvaccinated people is around 30%.
Smallpox was eradicated thanks to a very large global work put into the prevention of preventive vaccinations, carried out since 1967. The last case of smallpox in the world took place in 1977. After its complete eradication and elimination of vaccinations, all virus samples were placed in 2 recommended by the World Organization Health (WHO) laboratories – CDC in Atlanta (US) and VECTOR in Koltsov (Novosibirsk).
Smallpox – causes
The aetiological factor of smallpox is the dsDNA virus of the Poxviridae family, genus Orthopoxvirus – Varola virus (VARV). Importantly, it is not related to the chickenpox virus. The reservoir of smallpox infection is the human being who is the source of the infection from the moment of the onset of the fever.
The infection spreads in many ways, but most often it comes through droplets. Also, direct contact with the patient’s skin lesions, his underwear, bedding or vesicle discharge – is a likelihood of infection. Nothing is known about the transmission of viruses by animals.
The greatest number of cases is observed in spring and winter.
Viruses entering the body travel to nearby lymph nodes, from which the infection spreads to other lymph nodes, bone marrow and spleen after about 3 days.
Smallpox symptoms
When smallpox viruses enter the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, there is anincubationperiod during which the viruses reproduce and cause asymptomatic viremia twice. After the incubation period (8–16 days), the patient develops a highfeveraccompanied by disturbed consciousness, malaise,headacheandback pain.
Thenthe rash period begins– at this stage, a maculopapular rash forms on the mucous membranes of the throat and mouth, as well as the skin of the face and forearms, and on the lower limbs, hands and feet. After about two days, the eruptions begin to become deeply embedded pustules which turn into scabs after a few days. Over time, they begin to fall off and leave unsightly scars. The patient’s death usually occurs in the second week of the disease, as a result of a generalized inflammatory reaction. Smallpox can also be milder in nature.
Types of smallpox
Smallpox can take two forms: hemorrhagic and malignant.
1. The haemorrhagic form of smallpox– this form of smallpox is usually fatal. After a short prodromal period, acute symptoms of general weakness appear with a very high fever, severe pain in the head, back andabdomen. Over time, erythema, skinecchymosisand typical mucous membranes develop.
2. Malignant pox– this form is also characterized by high mortality and severe systemic symptoms. There are confluent eruptions that do not exceed the stage of pustules, often with severe hemorrhagic exudate. Patients with more severe forms may experience massive exfoliation of large areas of the epidermis.
Smallpox treatment
There are no standard treatments for smallpox. The treatment is mainly symptomatic, and in the event of bacterial superinfection, antibiotic therapy is implemented. Vaccinations are effective.
The first smallpox vaccine was invented in 1796 by Edward Jenner, then a British medic. This vaccine was based on the administration of live, virulent vaccinia viruses (not smallpox). For this purpose, the method of scarification was used, i.e. quick puncturing (fifteen times) of the skin with a needle or a scarifier previously soaked in a vaccine. After vaccination, the wound was covered with gauze to prevent contamination of other parts of the body. Approximately 4-14 days after the vaccination, the skin could be seen as lumpy changes on the skin, followed by vesicles and concave white spots. This was usually accompanied by fever and enlargement of the surrounding lymph nodes.
Vaccination against smallpox was not included in the compulsory vaccination calendar.
Smallpox vaccines – complications
The smallpox vaccine carried a risk of complications, for example:
- changes in organs due to bacterial exposure,
- testicular inflammation
- pyoderma (secondary),
- circulatory disorders,
- cow septicemia,
- encephalitis.
Smallpox is considered a true biological weapon because:
- the population is not immune to it due to the lack of vaccinations,
- has a high mortality rate,
- it is difficult to recognize at an early stage,
- it is easily infected by direct contact or through the air,
- it can completely disrupt the health service.
- Smallpox as a biological weapon
Smallpox vaccine history: The last victim of smallpox. The virologist committed suicide when he found out.
Janet contracted smallpox (Variola Vera) in 1978, when the world was convinced that she had already dealt with the deadly disease. The truth about how the infection occurred is still a mystery.
- The virus most likely emerged from the laboratory on the ground floor of Birmingham University, where Janet worked as a photographer
- When the woman was found infected, everyone feared that the deadly virus would come back again
- The media accused the virologist working in the laboratory of not having exercised due diligence and that the virus had leaked out of the vial because of him. The man, torn by remorse, committed suicide
On September 6, 1978, Henry Bedson, a Birmingham virologist, cut his throat in a shed near a house in the suburbs.
The wife who discovered the body found a farewell letter.“I’m sorry to lose the trustthat so many friends and colleagues have placed in me and my work,” he wrote just before committing suicide.
He died because he couldn’t bear the remorse. For the British press at the time, Bedson became the“doctor of evil”who made the smallpox virus, which had been eradicated the year before, again become a deadly threat to society. After he killed himself, in a hospital several dozen kilometers from his shed, doctors fought for the life of Janet Parker.They lost.This is the last known smallpox victim in the world. Bedson, on the other hand, became a victim of the media campaign.
The first symptoms of fatal smallpox
On a hot Friday morning on August 11, 1978, Janet Parker woke up extremely exasperated.The headache that had lastedfrom the night before did not stop. She was convinced that thefluwas taking her . However, she decided that this was no reason to miss the day at work.
Her husband, Joseph, dropped her off to the medical lab at the University of Birmingham where she worked as a photographer .They were both in their forties and lived a quiet life with two dogs in a modest house in Kings Norton on the outskirts of the city. She was taking photos, he was working at the post office.
Janet’s task at the university was, inter alia,photographing tissue scraps on slides.She also took photos for academic materials, but it happened that university staff asked her for private photos. She photographed scientists at work and even their family celebrations.
Janet met her colleague Glenda Miller at work. She noticed that the woman looked very bad. Both, however, decided that it was nothing dangerous, probably a common cold and everything would return to normal after the weekend.
Terrifying diagnosis
Janet did not show up for work on Monday, August 14. The headache worsened. There was also a high fever, and something that worried Janet the most:a small rash at first, but then spreading rapidly throughout her body, mostly on the chest, arms, legs and face.
Miller, Janet’s friend, called her Wednesday to see what was going on. The woman said then that“she never felt so bad“. The family doctor visited her a few days after the first symptoms appeared. After examination, he made a diagnosis:chicken pox. He prescribed an antibiotic and argued that the disease would soon pass.
However, Janet’s health deteriorated day by day.On August 24, doctors diagnosed a woman with smallpox.A deadly disease which, to the joy of the whole world,had been completely eradicated only a year earlier.
So how did the virus happen again?
Smallpox has been dangerous for thousands of years
Smallpoxhas been known to mankind for thousands of years, has caused epidemics and numerous deaths, and its complications have led to blindness. The firstsymptoms of smallpoxare (according to WHO) highfeverandfatigue. The next stage of the disease involves a characteristic rash that appears especially on the face, arms and legs. The eruptions fill with fluid, then pus, and over time turn into scabs that fall off.
Smallpox rash / photo by Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
The virus causing the disease, belonging to the herpesvirus Orthopoxvirus, was transmitted mainly by direct contact with sick people and by airborne droplets. There was also a risk of infection through contact with clothes, bedding and objects with which the patient came into contact.Smallpox mortality was on average 30%, but it also depended on the form of the disease and could have been higher. The most aggressive varieties of smallpox even killed over 80 percent. infected people.The highest mortality was observed in unvaccinated persons.
The fight against smallpox took a long time, and millions of people died before it was won.
Janet Parker is the last known person to die as a result of an infection.
Vials of smallpox in the laboratory
In the building where Janet Parker worked, on the floor below, Henry Bedson, an eminent virologist and specialist in infectious diseases, was conducting his extensive research on the smallpox virus.
The scientist, a reticent, thin 40-year-old, was an infection specialist who was appreciated all over the world by that time. He has devoted his entire professional life to researching the virus. Henry and Janet were almost the same age, they were both in their forties, they probably met often in the hallways of the college where they both worked.
The laboratory, led by Bedson, was one of the few places in the world where samples of the virus were still stored.Bedson investigated whether the world was threatened by other varieties of smallpox. He tried to prevent this from happening, but to do so, he had to work on the still active virus he kept in vials in the freezers of his studio.
The pox virus has gotten out of the lab
When it was certain that Janet had contracted smallpox, the best specialist in the field, Henry Bedson, was brought to the laboratory. When the virologist found out about the chickenpox infection, Parker was already having a temperature of 39 degrees, almost continuously, and the rash was all over her body. The woman was transferred to solitary confinement. Doctors also took her swabs.
Bedson got Parker swab vials and went to work immediately. What he saw under the microscope stunned him.The virus the doctors downloaded to Janet was the same virus Bedson kept in his laboratory freezers.
It turns out that this is where the virus that infected Parker got out of Bedson’s lab.
Remorse
When it became known that Parker was a carrier of the smallpox virus, the British government immediately went on high alert. The medics, accompanied by investigators, began searching for anyone who might have come into contact with Janet. New vaccination points were also launched immediately. After a few days, it was possible to locate all the people who might have dealt with the woman in the last weeks.
Queue at the vaccination point in Birmingham in 1978 / photo: Birmingham Post and Mail Archive / Mirrorpix / Getty Images
During this time, Bedson was experiencing a drama.The media, which immediately started writing about a new case of smallpox, accused the virologist of negligence, as a result of which the virus got out of his laboratory. It was also recalled that the recent inspection revealed many anomalies. There were no showers, for example, and vials of hazardous substances may have been inadequately sealed.
Bedson, cornered by the media which called him “the doctor of evil,” consumed by remorse, cut his throat.
The investigation has come to a standstill
Janet Parker died after a serious illness on September 11, 1978. Itis still unknown how the virus got out of the laboratory and infected the woman. Fortunately, thanks to the quick reaction of the authorities and the administration of subsequent doses of vaccines, the disease was nipped in the bud.
According to investigators investigating the causes of the infection, Henry Bedson made no mistakes in his work. He was innocent.The woman herself could enter the laboratory, where there were vials with smallpox.
Since then, the World Health Organization has commissionedthe disposal of all vialscontaining smallpox strains. To this day, the virus is still kept in only two laboratories: in the United States and Russia.
More vials found in the lab
In mid-November 2021, a researcher at the Merck facility in Pennsylvania was cleaning laboratory freezers. In one of them, he drew attention to the vials that were labeled “smallpox”. According to the representatives of the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (OCD), the lab worker who discovered the vials was wearing gloves and a mask. “There is no indication that anyone has had direct contact with the vials,” we read in a statement issued by OCD.
In America,there was immediate concern that the dangerous disease would again spread to society and wreak havoc.The lab was immediately closed andthe case was investigated by the FBI. OCD researchers were also involved and analyzed the contents of the vials.
It turned out, however, that there was no sign of smallpoxin the laboratory utensils .
