What is Smallpox?

Smallpox is a contagious viral illness caused due to variola virus. It has infected human beings for thousands of years and can be a disfiguring and often deadly disease. Smallpox has had devastating effects on human health. Historically before the widespread use of smallpox vaccine, repeated epidemics of the disease swept across continents, killed thousands of people, decimated population and changed the course of history. Not many illnesses have had such an overwhelming and devastating effect on human history.

Currently there is no treatment or cure for the disease and vaccination is the only way to prevent it. In 1798, Edward Jenner showed that inoculation with cowpox could probably protect against smallpox. This was the first hope that smallpox could be controlled.

The WHO launched an intensified plan to eradicate smallpox in 1967 with widespread vaccination. At that time, 60% of the world's population was at risk of developing smallpox, the disease killed every fourth victim, and it scarred or blinded most survivors, and it was not treatable. The global eradication campaign for smallpox (with use of immunization) was finally successful and in 1980 when WHO endorsed that naturally occurring smallpox had been eradicated globally.

Although global eradication of smallpox is a well established fact, a small contingent of the pox virus still stored in high security labs. These labs are based in the United States and Siberia. There is also the often discussed speculation that certain other governments or entities may hold stockpiles. This is a cause of concern as smallpox has the potential of being used against the human race as a biological warfare agent.

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