Smallpox (patient information)

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Smallpox

Overview

What are the symptoms?

What are the causes?

Who is at highest risk?

When to seek urgent medical care?

Diagnosis

Treatment options

Diseases with similar symptoms

Where to find medical care for Smallpox?

What to expect (Outlook/Prognosis)?

Prevention of Smallpox

Smallpox On the Web

Ongoing Trials at Clinical Trials.gov

Images of Smallpox

Videos on Smallpox

FDA on Smallpox

CDC on Smallpox

Smallpox in the news

Blogs on Smallpox

Directions to Hospitals Treating Smallpox

Risk calculators and risk factors for Smallpox

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Assistant Editor(s)-in-Chief: Samuel A. Hom

Overview

Smallpox is a serious, contagious, and sometimes fatal infectious disease characterized by a raised pink rash, that was declared eradicated in 1980 by the World Health Organization.

What are the symptoms of Smallpox?

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What causes Smallpox?

Smallpox is caused by the variola virus that emerged in human populations thousands of years ago. Except for laboratory stockpiles, the variola virus has been eliminated.

Who is at highest risk?

Generally, direct and fairly prolonged face-to-face contact is required to spread smallpox from one person to another. Smallpox also can be spread through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated objects such as bedding or clothing. Rarely, smallpox has been spread by virus carried in the air in enclosed settings such as buildings, buses, and trains. Humans are the only natural hosts of variola. Smallpox is not known to be transmitted by insects or animals. A person with smallpox is sometimes contagious with onset of fever (prodrome phase), but the person becomes most contagious with the onset of rash. At this stage the infected person is usually very sick and not able to move around in the community. The infected person is contagious until the last smallpox scab falls off.

When to seek urgent medical care?

If you think you may have been exposed to smallpox, contact your health care provider immediately. Because smallpox has been wiped out this would be very unlikely, unless you have worked with the virus in a laboratory or there has been an act of bioterrorism.

Diagnosis

If the patient has a fever, malaise, head and body aches, and sometimes vomiting. The fever is usually high, in the range of 101 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Around 4 days after exposure a rash will emerge, first as small red dots on the mouth and tongue.

Treatment options

There is no proven treatment for smallpox. Scientists are currently researching new treatments. Patients with smallpox may be helped by intravenous fluids, medicine to control fever or pain, and antibiotics for any secondary bacterial infections that may occur.

Diseases with similar symptoms

Where to find medical care for Smallpox?

Directions to Hospitals Treating Smallpox

What to expect (Outlook/Prognosis)?

Prevention of Smallpox

One of the best ways to prevent smallpox is through vaccination. If given to a person before exposure to smallpox, the vaccine can completely protect them. Vaccination within 3 days after exposure will prevent or greatly lessen the severity of smallpox in most people. Vaccination 4 to 7 days after exposure likely offers some protection from disease or may decrease the severity of disease. Vaccination will not protect smallpox patients who already have a rash. Currently, the smallpox vaccine is not widely available to the general public. However, there is enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate every person in the United States in the event of a smallpox emergency.

Sources

MedlinePlus Center for Disease Control

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