Smallpox Symptoms

Signs and symptoms
... The first symptoms of smallpox usually appear 12 to14 days after you''re infected. During the incubation period of seven to 17 days, you look and feel healthy and can''t infect others. Following the i...

Causes
... The variola virus causes smallpox. Under high magnification, variola particles look like rectangles with a deeply patterned surface. They''re sometimes referred to as bricks. Each brick is composed of...

Smallpox Prevention

Prevention
... Smallpox is one of the most devastating of human diseases. In its 12,000-year history, it has probably killed more people than any other illness, including the plague. Yet no naturally occurring small...

Smallpox Treatment

Complications
... Historically, variola major is fatal in about 30 percent of people who contract it. Almost no one survives the hemorrhagic and malignant forms of the disease. People who recover from smallpox usually ...

Treatment
... No cure for smallpox exists. There is some evidence that cidofovir — an antiviral medication normally used to treat an infection known as cytomegalovirus (CMV) — might prevent smallpox if ...

Smallpox Other

What is Smallpox?
... Smallpox is a serious, contagious, and sometimes fatal infectious disease caused by a virus called the variola virus. The disease gets its name from the Latin word for spotted and refers to the small ...

Fast Facts on Smallpox Disease
... Part One of a two-part series What is smallpox? Smallpox is a serious, contagious and sometimes fatal infectious disease. There is no specific treatment for smallpox disease, nor is there a cure. The ...