Thousands of years ago, small pox virus was the emerging cause of illnesses and deaths in the human populations. The smallpox outbreaks occurred from time to time till the 1980s. However, after the success of smallpox vaccination, the last outbreak of small pox in the United States was in 1949. In addition to this, the World Health Assembly declared smallpox as eradicated. Moreover, since then, no occurring cases of smallpox have been reported. Small pox research in the United States focuses on continuing to develop vaccines, drugs and diagnostic tests to protect people from smallpox.
The photograph above shows the dramatic difference between two boys who were exposed to the virus.
One of the boys in the picture is vaccinated, whereas, the other is not. The image shows an enormous difference between being vaccinated and unvaccinated. Smallpox is the only disease that has been eradicated from human history, that is, smallpox. In 1801, Edward Jenner was under the impression that his vaccine would bring nothing but annihilation of smallpox. On May 24th, 1980, the World Health Organization declared smallpox as eradicated from the surface of earth.
Before the eradication of smallpox, it was a serious and contagious infection that spread from one person to another. Smallpox presented with fever and a progressive skin rash. While most people with smallpox recovered, 3 out of 10 people affected with the disease died. In addition, survivors of small pox were left with permanent scars on their bodies and faces. Some were even left blind. However, thanks to the development of a vaccine, no known cases of smallpox have been reported since 1977.
While such a picture won’t be seen today, there are other devastating diseases, such as, Diphteria and Measles, that we continue to see, despite vaccinations. However, these diseases are easily preventable with vaccines.
