Smallpox
Global Eradication Of Smallpox Virus
Smallpox is dangerous only to human beings. Animals and insects can neither be infected by smallpox, nor carry the virus in any form. Humans cannot carry the virus, unless they are symptomatic. These important facts entered into the 1967 decision by the WHO to attempt worldwide eradication of the smallpox virus.
The methods used in WHO's eradication program were simple: 1) careful surveillance for all smallpox infections worldwide to allow for quick diagnosis and immediate quarantine of patients; 2) immediate vaccination of all contacts of any patient diagnosed with smallpox infection to interrupt the virus' usual pattern of contagion.
The WHO's program was extremely successful, and the virus was declared eradicated worldwide in May of 1980. Two laboratories (in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Moscow, Russia) retain samples of the smallpox virus, because some level of concern exists that another poxvirus could mutate (undergo genetic changes) and cause human infection. Other areas of concern include the possibility of smallpox virus being utilized in a situation of biological warfare, or the remote chance that smallpox virus could somehow escape from the laboratories which are storing it. For these reasons, large quantities of vaccine are stored in different countries around the world, so that response to any future threat by the smallpox virus can be prompt.
Resources
Books
Cormican, M.G., and M.A. Pfaller. "Molecular Pathology of Infectious Diseases," in Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. 20th ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 2001.
Finn, Elizabeth A. Pox Americana: Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. New York: Hill & Wang, 2001
Flint, S.J., et al. Principles of Virology: Molecular Biology, Pathogenesis, and Control Washington: American Society for Microbiology, 1999.
Isselbacher, Kurt J., et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. New York: McGraw Hill, 1994.
Jenner, Edward, and Herve Bazin. Andrew Morgan, and Glenise Morgan, trans. The Eradication of Small Pox: Edward Jenner and the First and Only Eradication of a Human Infectious Disease. San Diego: Academic Press, 2000.
Kobayashi, G., Patrick R. Murray, Ken Rosenthal, and Michael Pfaller. Medical Microbiology. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 2003.
Lyons, Albert S., and R. Joseph Petrucelli, II. Medicine: An Illustrated History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987.
Mandell, Douglas, et al. Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1995.
Richman, D.D., and R.J. Whitley. Clinical Virology. 2nd ed. Washington: American Society for Microbiology, 2002.
Tucker, Jonathan B. The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001.
Periodicals
Jezek, Z. "20 Years Without Smallpox." Epidemiology, Microbiology, and Imunology 49, no. 3 (2000): 95-102
Levin, N. A., and B. B. Wilson. "Cowpox Infection, Human." eMedicine Journal no. 2 (December 2001): 1-8.
Robert, J. "The Public And The Smallpox Threat." New England Journal Of Medicine 348 no.5 (2003): 426-432.
Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt
Additional topics
Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Semiotics to SmeltingSmallpox - Symptoms And Progression Of The Disease, The Discovery Of The Vaccine, Global Eradication Of Smallpox Virus - Diagnosis