Edit page | Page history | Printable version

variola major --> smallpox

(Science: disease, virology) This acute viral disease once claimed a high mortality rate, but was officially announced as globally eradicated in 1979.

This was due to who vaccination programs. Headache, vomiting and fever precede, the eruption of a widespread rash that is raised, vesicular and finally pustular. The eruption follows a set pattern of dissemination, commencing on the head and face. When the final stage is passed scars (pockmarks) are left to disfigure the skin.