Small pox vaccine

The smallpox is a nasty infectious disease that manifests through skin rashes that has been responsible for the death of many people throughout history. The illness is caused by a virus that has two variants: Variola major or Variola minor. This disease is only contracted by humans.

The Variola virus affects the human body causing the skin to present raised bumps or blisters. Smallpox originally starts out as a rash because of the virus, which sets itself in fine blood vessels right under the skin, especially in the mouth and neck area. The rashes turn into fluid filled blisters in time and Variola major is responsible for a high mortality rate.

A vaccine for the smallpox is available and helps the population a lot. Being such a resistant disease throughout the ages, there were cures for the smallpox earlier in human history. The procedure of preventing smallpox usually involved inoculation. So many centuries ago this was done by administering a variant of the smallpox to a patient in order for the immune system to become accustomed to the virus and create the antibodies needed to fight it off.

The cowpox, which is a very similar version of the smallpox, was used as a method of inoculation earlier in our history because it was less aggressive but similar enough to prepare the body against infection with smallpox. The modern vaccine for the smallpox is a live virus that is prepared from another infectious virus, which replaces the cowpox.

The smallpox vaccine is administered to the upper arm using a special needle and a bump develops there in a few days. Over a period of three weeks the bump evolves and gains a new form until it finally drains, scabs and falls off, leaving a small scar behind.