Smallpox, eradication

In studies conducted during the smallpox eradication program and by surveillance for cases in newly smallpox-free areas it was reasoned that if the virus were... 

In 1958, Higson led a team that inoculated about 90 000 people in Asia and Africa against polio, typhoid, and cholera using the Hypospray. In 1965, the United Nation s World Health Organization used the jet injector. The organization freeze-dried vaccines for its successful worldwide smallpox eradication program. For its key role in eliminating smallpox from the list of human diseases, the jet injector earned a new name—the "Peace Pistol."... 

Breman, J. G., Arita, I. (1980). The confirmation and maintenance of smallpox eradication. New England Journal of Medicine, 303, 1263-1273. 

Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly. (2002). Smallpox eradication Destruction of Variola virus stocks. Resolution WHASS.IS. Geneva, Switzerland World Health Organization. 

On the other hand, we must not forget that the ultimate goal of an immunization program is control of disease or even its regional elimination or worldwide eradication. A successful immunization program can lead to the eradication of disease and opens up the possibility of ultimately abandoning immunization (and with it the occurrence of adverse effects) completely. Smallpox eradication made it possible to stop smallpox immunization and poliomyelitis eradication, which is expected to be achieved within a few years, will mean the end of polio vaccine. 

Three years after smallpox eradication, in 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that aU countries cease smallpox vaccination. In addition, WHO recommended that all laboratories destroy stocks of the virus or transfer them to either of two WHO reference laboratories, the Institute of Virus Preparations in Moscow, Russia, or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. However, there may have been stocks of virus elsewhere (26,27). Although the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus research recommend eradication of aU smallpox stocks by June 30,2002, the WHO Health Assembly has delayed this each year because of concerns that stocks of virus are needed for continued study (28). 

Virus specimens from the smallpox-eradication campaign may remain unrecognized or unreported. 

Foege WH, Millar JD, Henderson DA. Smallpox eradication in West and Central Africa. Bull WHO. 1975 52 209-222. 

Individuals who were vaccinated during the WHO smallpox eradication campaign in the 1970s were considered to have immunity to smallpox for at least 3 years, but protection diminishes over time. The only vaccine still available in the United States is a live vaccinia virus manufactured by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories (now Wyeth-Lederle Vaccines and Pediatrics, and no longer manufacturing the vaccinia vaccine). The CDC... 

Preventive medicine through vaccination continues to be the most cost-effective pubHc health practice, even with the drastic advance in modern medicine. Mass vaccination programs have eradicated smallpox from the earth. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a major campaign underway to eradicate poHo by the year 2000. The development of vaccines has saved millions of Hves and prevented many more from suffering. However, there are stiU many diseases without effective vaccines, such as malaria. With the recent emergence of antibiotic-resistance strains and exotic vimses, an effective vaccine development program becomes a top priority of pubHc health poHcy. 

Methisazone (Fig. 5.2IB) inhibits DNA viruses (particularly vaccinia and variola) but not RNA viruses, and has been used in the prophylaxis of smallpox. It is now little used, especially as, according to the World Health Organization, smallpox has now been eradicated. 

In 1801, Jenner prophesied the eradication of smallpox by the practice of vaccirrahon. hr 1967 the disease infected 10 milhon people. The World Health Orgarrizahon (WHO) initiated a programme of confinement and vaccirration with the object of eradicating the disease. In Somalia in 1977 the last case of rraturally acquired smallpox occurred, and in 1979 the WHO announced the total eradication of smallpox, thus firUrlling Jenner s prophecy. 

In particular, I am indebted to Donald A. Henderson, MD, MPH, who directed the World Health Organization s eradication of smallpox, for his private e-mail communication, Nov. 23, 1999, explaining the effect of refrigeration on vaccination and smallpox. 

Right now, we have to deal with incubation time and wait for victims to develop symptoms. The incubation time for anthrax is one to six days. In this example, anthrax victims would have one to six days between exposure and the onset of symptoms. Anthrax is not transmissible from person to person. Compare this to the incubation time with that of the virus, smallpox, which is ten to seventeen days. Smallpox is highly transmissible from person to person. After exposure to smallpox, a person could travel by air around the world a number of times and contaminate many people before developing any symptoms. However, naturally occurring smallpox has been eradicated worldwide since 1977. Terrorism could rapidly change that eradication to an attack since samples of the smallpox virus have been stored in both the United States and Russia. 

The vaccine against smallpox is made with a virus related to smallpox virus called vaccinia virus. It is not made with smallpox virus called variola. The vaccine is a highly effective immunizing agent against smallpox infection. It was successfully used to eradicate smallpox from the human population. 

Although smallpox disease has been eradicated, two countries still keep smallpox virus (variola) stocks. Two laboratories hold stocks of smallpox virus (variola). These are the WHO Collaborating Centres in Atlanta, USA and Koltsovo, Russian Federation. 

Vaccination against viral and bacterial diseases has been one of the success stories of human and veterinary medicine. Probably the most outstanding example of the effectiveness of vaccination is the eradication of smallpox. In 1967 between 10 and 15 million cases of smallpox occurred annually in some 33 countries. By 1977 the last naturally occurring case was reported in Somalia. Polio, too, has been controlled in developed countries, for example the number of cases in the USA was reduced from over 40,000 per year in the early 1950s, before a vaccine was available, to only a handful of cases in the 1980s. Diphtheria is now almost unheard of yet over 45,000... 

Treatment — Vaccinia immune globulin must be used in conjunction with a vaccinia vaccine if exposure to a smallpox case occurred more than 4 days earlier. However, only the vaccinia vaccine is required less than 4 days after such contact. The vaccine starts to be protective in approximately 7 days. This vaccine does not provide life-long immunity. Revaccination is recommended at 5- to 10-year intervals. Certain antiviral drugs such as Cidofovir have demonstrated that they confer some protection against infection. Unfortunately, because smallpox has been eradicated, limited research on such drugs has been conducted.3... 

Smallpox Smallpox is a very contagious disease with a mortality rate as high as 30-35%. It is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300-500 million deaths in the 20th century. Fortunately, it has been eradicated in 1979 through strict regimens of vaccination. 

In the 1960s, the WHO initiated a 10-year mass vaccination campaign which has eradicated the disease. In 2005, large-scale production of the smallpox vaccine was undertaken in the USA for storage in case of a biological attack by terrorists. 

The word vaccination comes from vaccinia, the name of the virus now known to cause cowpox vaca is the Latin word for cow ). The term vaccination is now broadly used to describe the process of causing a mild disease in order to protect a person from a more dangerous disease. Vaccination is one form of immunization, exposing the body to a material to stimulate a protective response from the immune system. Vaccination is routinely used to prevent many illnesses, including measles, rnmnps, German measles (rubella), chicken pox, and polio. Many of these illnesses have disappeared or become very rare in developed countries that provide widespread vaccinations. Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, thanks to... 

Smallpox—Virus infection that causes fever and skin eruptions, frequently fatal. Smallpox has been eradicated by worldwide campaigns to vaccinate, making the body s immune system able to resist infection by the introduction beneath the skin of a small amount of a harmless form of the virus. 

For many years the preferred approach to immunity to infectious disease lias been by development of active immunity through the injection of a vaccine. The vaccine may be either an attenuated live infections agent, or an inactivated or killed product. In either case, protective substances called antibodies are generated in the bloodstream these, are described in the next section. Vaccines for a number of diseases have been available for many years and have assisted in the eradication of some diseases, such as smallpox. As new strains of bacteria and viruses are discovered, additional vaccines becomes available from time to time. See also Vaccine Technology,... 

Bazin, H. and E. Jenner The Eradication of Smallpox, Academic Press. Inc, San... 

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