Smallpox detection

How many people would have to get smallpox before it is considered an outbreak One suspected case of smallpox is considered a public health emergency. Smallpox surveillance in the United States includes detecting a suspected case or cases, making a definitive diagnosis with rapid laboratory confirmation at CDC, and preventing further smallpox transmission. A suspected smallpox case should be reported immediately by telephone to state or local health officials. They should immediately obtain advice regarding isolation of the patient or patients, and on laboratory specimen collection. State or local health officials should notify CDC immediately at (404) 639-2184 or (404) 639-0385 if a suspected case of smallpox is reported. 

Scientists believe that if smallpox virus is released as an aerosol and not exposed to UV light, it may persist for as long as 24 hours or somewhat longer under favorable conditions. However, by the time patients become ill, which takes about 10 days to 12 days after infection with the virus, and it has been determined that an aerosol release of smallpox virus had occurred, there would be no viable smallpox virus left in the environment to detect. Trying to detect the virus everywhere at all times without any indications of any illness in people would not be feasible. 

The occurrence of smallpox infection among people who handled laundry from infected patients is well documented, and it is believed that virus in such material remains viable for extended periods. In this situation, the virus could be detected in the environment, but investigators would already know it was there because of the presence of the associated illness. 

D.A. Kulesh, R.O. Baker, B.M. Loveless, D. Norwood, S.H. Zwiers, E. Mucker, C. Hartmann, R. Herrera, D. Miller, D. Christensen, L.P. Wasieloski Jr., J. Huggins and P.B. Jahrling, Smallpox and pan-orthopox virus detection by real-time 3 -minor groove binder TaqMan assays on the Roche lightcycler and the Cepheid smart cycler platforms, J. Clin. Microbiol., 42 (2004) 601-609. 

Si structure 251 smallpox 70 soil nitrogen compounds detected by 15N NMR, amides/peptides 126 amino adds 126 difficulties encountered with the method 126-127... 

Robinson [48] described a gas chromatographic method for measuring residual water in freeze-dried smallpox vaccine in 1972. The method was developed to optimize quality control of a tissue-culture smallpox vaccine. Water is extracted from the sample with benzene and determined by gas chromatography with thermal conductivity (hot wire) detection and columns packed with Chromosorb 102. 

In the experience of the authors, desmin may be detected as well, although others have disagreed on that point.224 The ultrastructural and biochemical attributes of myofi-broblastic contractile elements are essentially identical to those of smooth muscle cells. Notably, the peculiar intra-cytoplasmic inclusions that are present in DF correspond to aggregates of immunoreactive actin filaments.222-229 Fibrosarcoma of the skin has been reported in association with burn scars, surgical scars, smallpox vaccinations, and other injection sites.221 This exceedingly uncommon neoplasm is composed exclusively of fibroblastic elements and stains only for vimentin, to the exclusion of the other specialized mesenchymal... 

Nevertheless, the chances of successfully doing that seem to be slim, for now. Notably, Ramses V, who lived some 3000 years ago, is the earliest known victim of smallpox, based on an analysis of his mummy [261]. Many virus-like particles were revealed by electron microscopy and identified serologically as smallpox virus in a 400-year-old mummy from Italy. The antigenic structure of the particles was well preserved [262]. The virions in the mummy s skin had lost their viability. Viral antigen was not be detected by EIA or RPHA, and its DNA was not detected by molecular hybridization [263]. Attempts to recover the virus from the frozen bodies of persons who died of smallpox continue in Arctic sites in Siberia [264], and in Canada [265]. 

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has developed a handheld-type device named Handheld Advanced Nucleic Acid Analyzer (HANAA) (Fig. 3) which is capable of rapid detection of bioagents such as B. anthracis in the field. It uses the TaqMan-based PCR assay system. Due to its small footprint and low weight, it is ideal for field applications. Another development from them is the Nanowire Barcode System which speeds up detection of pathogens such as anthrax, smallpox, ricin, and botulinum. Antibodies of specific pathogens are attached to the nanowires which produce small, reliable, and sensitive detection systems. 

Several biological threat agents were also detected employing ECL approach including purified Staphylococcus aureus enterotoxin B, botulinus A, cholera toxin, and ricin toxins [187]. Another study in the following years focused on Bacillus anthracis and E. coli 0157 H7 and used a male-specific coliphage virus to stimulate the detection of viral agents such as smallpox, Ebola, and yellow fever [186]. This work was later on extended to field samples to measure... 

The World Health Organization (WHO) certifies that smallpox has been eradicated. 3 April At least 64 people die from anthrax in Sverdlovsk, Russia. Following the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the outbreak is shown to have been the result of an accidental release from a biological warfare (BW) production facility. 22 September The Vela Incident occurs, in which satellite Vela 6911 detects a double flash of the type known to occur during a nuclear explosion. 

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