Smallpox incubation

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. 

Variola virus causes smallpox. The incubation period is about 12 days with a range of 7 to 17 days following exposure. Initial symptoms include high fever, fatigue, and head and back aches. A characteristic rash, most prominent on the face, arms, and legs, follows in 2-3 days. The rash starts with flat red lesions that evolve at the same rate. Lesions become pus-filled and begin to crust early in the second week. Scabs develop and then separate and fall off after about 3-4 weeks. Most patients with smallpox recover, but death occurs in up to 30% of cases. 

In addition to isolation of infectious smallpox patients, careful surveillance of contacts during their potential incubation period is required. 

The portals of entry for the smallpox virus are the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract. Smallpox is transmitted by large or small respiratory droplets and by contact with skin lesions or secretions. Patients are considered more infectious if they are actively coughing. Incubation period ranges from 10 to 14 days, but most... 

Acute smallpox symptoms resemble those of other acute viral infections such as influenza. After an incubation period of 12-14 days (range 7-17 days), smallpox begins with a 2-4 day nonspecific prodrome of fever, myalgias, headache, and backache. Severe abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, prostration, and delirium may be present. Patients are not infectious until the end of the prodrome (25), when a maculopapular rash begins on the oral and pharyngeal mucosa, face and forearms, and spreads to the trunk and legs. 

It clearly and knowledgeably explains the symptoms, incubation period and available treatments for each agent, providing specific details, like the definition of weaponized anthrax and the government plan for containing a smallpox ontbreak. Sidebars describe how the organisms have been used as weapons in the past. 

Agent Index A336 Class Index C24 Smallpox Type Virus Initial symptoms are flulike including headache, chills, high fever (106° to 107°F), and aches in back and limbs. An Initial macular rash appears progressing to papules, and then blisters. The blisters in turn form crusts. The blisters and crusts cause severe itching. Routes Inhalation Abraded Skin Mucous Membranes Secondary Hazards Aerosol Contact Body Fluids Fomites Incubation 7 to 16 days Mortality Rate < 35% Reservoir Humans Direct Person-to-Person Transmission is possible. 

A. Characteristics. The smallpox virus is an orthopoxvirus with a narrow host range confined to humans. Eradication of the natural disease was completed in 1977. Appearance of human cases would signal use of the virus as a biological weapon. Under natural conditions, the virus is transmitted by direct contact with an infected case, by fomites, and occasionally by aerosols. Smallpox virus is highly stable and retains infectivity for long periods outside of the host. A related virus, monkeypox, clinically resembles smallpox and causes sporadic human disease in West and Central Africa. The incubation period is typically 12 days (range, 10-17 days). 

Dose. Oral, 1.5 to 3.0 g twice daily for 4 days as a prophylactic against smallpox-it should be administered before the 8th or 9th day of the 12-day incubation period. 

The incubation period for smallpox is 3-4 days after exposure. 

Monkey pox and cowpox are closely related to variola and might be genetically manipulated to produce a smallpox-hke virus. Once exposure to the smallpox virus occurs, the incubation period is approximately 12 days. Those who may have contacted exposed persons are quarantined for a minimum of 16 to 17 days following the exposure. Symptoms of smallpox include malaise, fever, rigors, vomiting, headache, and backache, and about 15% of the patients develop delirium (hallucinations). In approximately 2 to 3 days, an enanthem develops concomitantly with a particular rash on the face, hands, and forearms. This is followed by eruptions on the lower extremities and the trunk of the body, which occurs over a week s time. Lesions progress from discolored spots flush with the surface of the skin, to raised spots on... 

After an incubation period of 7 to 17 days variola major type smallpox attacks with high fever, chills, headache, aches, and vomiting and back and abdominal pain. Shortly after this, usually in 2 or 3 days rashes begin to appear on the face, hands... 

Smallpox Disease Incubation Period (Duration 7 to 17 days)... 

Inhalation by human beings of the glanders agent can lead to a full-blown, systemic blood infection (septicemia), severe pulmonary infection, and chronic inflammation of the skin and eyes. There is an incubation period from 10-14 days, and septicemia can lead to smallpox-like rashes on the skin. Even with antibiotic treatment, dissemination of B. mallei in an aerosol could result in high mortality among humans. 

Smallpox can be transmitted by inhalation of the virus suspended in aerosols. After about a 12-day incubation period, infection from smallpox causes fever and headache. As the virus spreads to the skin it forms pus-filled vesicles across the body. Survivors usually are noticeably scarred for life. The mortality rate for immunized individuals is approximately 3 percent, while for non-immunized humans it increases to 30 percent. 

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