What is smallpox? - A brief overview

(http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/smallpox-article/)

Smallpox is a contagious disease caused by the Variola virus. There are 2 type of Variola. Variola Major is the most severe and common form and has a fatality rate of around 30%. Variola Minor is a much less severe and less common presentation with a fatality rate of only about 1%.

Transmission

The disease was transmitted through prolonged and direct face to face contact however it can be spread by contact with infected bodily fluids and also by contact with contaminated objects such as bed linen and towels. According to BBC History (2011), blankets contaminated with smallpox were used as an early bio weapon by the British forces during the Pontiac rebellion of 1763. “Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America, wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet: 'Could it not be contrived to send smallpox among these disaffected tribes of Indians? We must use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.' The colonel replied: 'I will try to inoculate the [Native American tribe] with some blankets that may fall in their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself.' Smallpox decimated the Native Americans, who had never been exposed to the disease before and had no immunity.”

Symptoms

Someone suffering from smallpox is not contagious during the incubation period which can last 7 – 17 days but averages out at 13 – 14 days. They can go on to sometimes be contagious with onset of the initial or prodrome phase; this is when the 1^st signs of the disease become evident. These symptoms include fever, head and body aches, malaise and occasionally vomiting. The person becomes most contagious with the onset of the rash. The rash first presents as small red spots on the tongue or mouth. As these spots develop into sores, they break open and deposit large amounts of the virus into the body via the mouth and throat. This is when the victim is at their most contagious. A rash now begins to develop on the skin, spreading from the face and usually cover the entire body within 24 hours. This rash becomes raised bumps which fill with a thick opaque fluid. These pustules scab over and, by the end of the second week of the rash forming, begin to fall off. The person remains contagious until the very last scab falls off.

Eradication

During the 20^th Century smallpox killed more than 300 million people (Sebelius, 2011) making it one of the most feared diseases of its time. Between 1966 and 1980 the World Health Organization (WHO) embarked on a program to eradicate smallpox by a collaborative global vaccination programme. According to WHO (2013) “The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. Since then, the only known cases were caused by a laboratory accident in 1978 in Birmingham, England, which killed one person and caused a limited outbreak. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated in 1979.”

According to Sebelius (2011) “At that time, the WHO called on all nations to destroy their collections of smallpox virus or transfer them to the WHO-sanctioned collections at one of two labs in Russia or the United States”

Our assignment

It is these remaining stocks that our assignment concerns. We are asked to address the following question and complete a paper in support of our stance in relation to it.

One of the longest and most contentious international policy debates has swirled around the question of whether to destroy the last known stocks of the smallpox (Variola) virus, which are preserved at two World Health Organization (WHO)-authorized repositories in Russia and the United States. Although smallpox was eradicated from nature more than three decades ago, concerns surfaced in the early 1990’s that a few countries might have retained undeclared samples of the virus for biological warfare purposes.  Because a smallpox outbreak would be a global health emergency of major proportions, in 1999 the WHO approved a research program at the two authorized repositories to develop improved medical defences against the disease.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Smallpox Disease Overview. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Online]. Available from: http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp [27-03-2013]

Flight, C. (2011) Silent Weapon: Smallpox and Biological Warfare. London: BBC. [Online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/pox_weapon_01.shtml [27-03-2013]

Sebelius, K. (2011) Why We Still Need Smallpox. [s.l.] The New York Times Company. [Online] Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/opinion/26iht-edsebelius26.html?_r=0 [13-03-2013]

World Health Organization (2010) The Smallpox Eradication Programme - SEP (1966-1980). Geneva: WHO. [Online]. Available from: http://www.who.int/features/2010/smallpox/en/ [27-03-2013]

World Health Organization (2013) Smallpox. Geneva: WHO. [Online]. Available from: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/ [27-03-2013]