posted on 2009-10-14 by UrWorthMore

Smallpox: History

Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus of the genus orthopoxvirus1. The disease is known to have been around for thousands of years with the first recorded cases in Asia , although it is thought that there were cases among the Pharaohs of North Africa1,2. The mummified remains of Ramses V, c.1000 BC is believed to have smallpox lesions on the face2. There was no mention of smallpox in Europe  until the sixth century AD.

According to Kennedy2, while the Bubonic Plague had a devastating effect on the population, smallpox was never as lethal in Europe . It became endemic with occasional outbreaks and a widespread resistance developed resulting in a death rate of about 10% of the population1, 2. When smallpox was introduced to the Americas the story was quite different and the disease rapidly decimated the population. Kennedy uses the example of the Spanish attempt to settle Hispanola for sugar cane plantations in 1509. "By 1518 every single one of the 2.5 million aboriginals had perished, and the labour population had to be restored with African slaves."2

The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced in 1980 that smallpox had been "eradicated" from the globe3  with the last natural case recorded in Somalia in 1977, and several small outbreaks since as a result of laboratory exposure2. Fisher1 writes that "the only remaining smallpox virus at that time [1980] was reported to exist in secure labs in the Soviet Union and the United States.  However, since then, there have been reports that Soviet scientists developed the capacity to produce large quantities of the virus, modified to survive delivery by missile warhead, and that some of these stocks were supplied to countries hostile to the US." ... http://www.archetypeltd.co.nz/Smallpox.htm#rise_fall

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Introduction to Vaccination, Presentation #1 Smallpox

With diseases other than smallpox we have shown that 90% of the decline in mortality occured before vaccines were introduced. Due to the very old history of both vaccine (from Vacca, meaning 'from a cow') and variolation, the inoculation of pus from a human sufferer of smallpox to another human, we can not show a graph with the same 90% decline pre vaccine.

There are graphs available which show smallpox decline prior to vaccination as well as show that vaccination was ineffective in preventing vaccination...

http://www.vaclib.org/intro/present/index3.htm