Smallpox: Variola Virus

What is smallpox exactly? Smallpox is actually the nickname of the virus, the scientific name is Variola which may appear as V. major or V. minor. Variola virus is relatively stable in the natural environment. If aerosolized, it will retain its infectivity for at least several hours if not exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet light. Since the virus is two hundred and sixty by one hundred fifty nanometers and contains a molecule of double stranded DNA putatively coding for some two hundred different proteins; makes smallpox one of the largest viral genomes known which makes it especially difficult to create a synthetic copy of the virus for medical purposes. There are two rare forms of smallpox: haemorrhagic and malignant. Both types happen to …show more content…
Smallpox was localized in small blood vessels of the skin and in the mouth and throat. In the skin it resulted in a characteristic maculopapular rash and, later raised fluid-filled blisters. Symptoms of Smallpox occur twelve to fourteen days after the individual has been infected and they may include backache, delirium, diarrhea, excessive bleeding, fatigue, high fever, malaise, pink rash (turns into sores that become crusty on day eight or nine), severe headache, and vomiting. Smallpox is usually spread when an infected person has face to face contact with another person and air droplets are exchanged while being face to face. The disease can also be transmitted by contaminated clothes and bedding, though the risk of infection from this source is much lower. The spread of infection depended on the strand of smallpox the person was infected with. V. major was spread on a much smaller basis since V. major patients were typically only capable of staying in bed with the effects being too much to get anything done physically. With V. minor though it was much easier to spread, since V. minor effects left the individual with enough energy to still go through a typical day with some struggle coming in contact with countless