Smallpox

Smallpox has been one of the most dangerous and deadly curses’ ever placed on humankind. Even illnesses as terrible as the plague, cholera, and yellow fever have not had such a universal effect. Smallpox is a parasitic virus (a virus destructive to the host) called variola. It’s considered to be a “crowd disease”, spreading only through people and requiring a large densely populated area to survive. If the virus is cut off from new …

…into a changeling at which the mother shuddered, and making the eyes and cheeks of the betrothed maiden objects of horror to their lovers. (1) Smallpox killed off three empires, generation after generation of helpless families and thousands and thousands of infants and children. It was a disease like no other. It changed the lives of society, and it changed, as well as advanced, the knowledge and practice of medicine for years to come. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**