Variola (smallpox)

Variola (smallpox)
Highly contagious and frequently fatal viral disease characterized by a biphasic (double-humped) fever and a distinctive skin rash that (if the patient survived) left pock marks in its wake. The English physician Edward Jenner (1749-1823) exploited the fact that cowpox created immunity to smallpox and successfully developed an attenuated (weakened) virus vaccine for smallpox. Thanks to vaccination , smallpox has been eradicated. It was so named because the pocks were small and the disease was seen as less than the “great pox” (syphilis).

Medical dictionary. 2011.

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  • Smallpox — otheruses4|the disease the 1982 Serbian film|Variola Vera|the fish genus|Variola (Serranidae) Infobox Disease Name = Smallpox Caption = A child infected with smallpox ICD10 = ICD10|B|03| |b|00 ICD9 = ICD9|050 DiseasesDB = 12219 MedlinePlus =… …   Wikipedia

  • smallpox — An acute eruptive contagious disease caused by a poxvirus (Orthopoxvirus, a member of the family Poxviridae) and marked at the onset by chills, high fever, backache, and headache; in 2–5 days the constitu …   Medical dictionary

  • variola major — n a severe form of smallpox characterized historically by a death rate up to 40 percent or more * * * the classic severe form of smallpox …   Medical dictionary

  • variola minor — n a mild form of smallpox of low mortality called also alastrim, amaas * * * a mild form of smallpox that was found only in certain parts of South America and Africa …   Medical dictionary

  • Variola — Va*ri o*la, n. [LL., fr. L. varius various. See {Various}.] (Med.) The smallpox. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • variola — (n.) smallpox, 1771, from medical Latin dim. of L. varius changing, various, in this case speckled (see VARY (Cf. vary)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • variola — [və rī′ə lə] n. [ModL < ML, a pustule, prob. altered (based on L varius, various, mottled: see VARY) < L varus, pustule, pimple: see VARIX] any of a group of viral diseases characterized by pustular eruptions, including smallpox, cowpox,… …   English World dictionary

  • Smallpox — Small pox , n. [Small + pox, pocks.] (Med.) A contagious, constitutional, febrile disease characterized by a peculiar eruption; variola. The cutaneous eruption is at first a collection of papules which become vesicles (first flat, subsequently… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • smallpox — (variola; smawl poks) Once a highly contagious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus. Its most noticeable symptom was the appearance of blisters and pustules on the skin. Vaccination has eradicated smallpox throughout the world …   Dictionary of microbiology

  • smallpox — [smôlpäks΄] n. an acute, highly contagious disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by prolonged fever, vomiting, and pustular eruptions that often leave pitted scars, or pockmarks, when healed: see VARIOLA …   English World dictionary

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