Small Pox History

The most known member of the Poxviridae family is variola virus, the causing agent of smallpox disease. From the time of its suspected emergence after 10,000 BC to the time of its eradication, smallpox was a worldwide feared disease that took hundreds of millions of lives (8). The first recorded smallpox epidemic was in 1350 BC during the Egyptian–Hittite war. Smallpox then spread to Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries and to the North American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. These widespread epidemics caused millions of deaths in Europe and Mexico (9). Additionally, smallpox was used to demolish select human populations. The first recorded use of smallpox as a biological weapon was in 1763 during the French and Indian War,
The smallpox eradication through vaccination was possible at most due to one feature: there is no animal reservoir of smallpox, variola (VARV) spreads person to-person (11). Additionally, already early in the history those who bore pox scars were noted to be resistant to disease recurrence. And the persons who acquired smallpox through a scratch were witnessed to have attenuated course of disease. Buddhist nun sometime between 1022 and 1063 AD started an inoculation with smallpox pus or scabs either by a nasal or cutaneous route, a procedure known as variolation. This practice eventually spread to China, India and Turkey, and by the late 1700s, was practiced by European physicians (10). In 1798 the English physician Edward Jenner established a much safer practice, demonstrating that another poxvirus, CPXV, could be used to prevent smallpox infections in humans (10). After absorbing, that milkmaids who developed cowpox lesions are resistant to smallpox. Jenner took a fluid from a cowpox pustule on a dairymaid’s hand and used it for inoculation of an 8-year-old
The reason for this is that in spite of its indeterminate origin vaccinia virus was the basis for extremely effective vaccines. It is important to notice that orthopoxviruses are known to be immunologically cross-reactive and cross-protective, therefore infection with any member of this genus provides protection against infection with any other member of the genus (10, 13). Systematic vaccination against smallpox began in the early 19th century, but the real breakthrough in the eradication of smallpox happened in 1967 when the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated worldwide vaccination campaigns. The last known natural case of smallpox occurred in 1977 (14). Consequentially, in May 1980 the WHO declared that smallpox had been eradicated, ceasing the vaccination (10, 15 - 17). Because of the cessation of the vaccination against smallpox after its eradication 36 years ago, a tremendous part of the world human population currently has no immunity not only against smallpox, but also against any other orthopoxvirus infections (13, 18). As a consequence of this new situation, there is a possibility for the orthopoxviruses to circulate in the human