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NEWS > HEALTH > WASHINGTON WOMAN PROVES THAT SMALLPOX NOT JUST FOR ERADICATING NATIVES ANYMORE
WASHINGTON WOMAN PROVES THAT SMALLPOX NOT JUST FOR ERADICATING NATIVES ANYMORE
July 20 2010
Seattle, Washington – For many reasons smallpox is a disease unlike any other in human history. For 12,000 years the disease stalked our species, killing untold numbers (at least 300 million in the 20th century alone, a century in which it was
eradicated) and shaping the course of history. While we certainly have modern plagues such as HIV and Swine Flu, there has never been a disease like smallpox before or since and for the long term survival of our species that will hopefully remain the status quo.
It wasn’t just the damage that makes the disease unique, it is also the cure. Unlike every other disease or virus in the human population, smallpox is the only one that has been eradicated from the population. By the end of December 1979 the World Health Organization officially declared the disease gone, with only a few small cultures in high security laboratories in the United States and Russia. Though small quantities of the disease still exist in vaccines, it has more or less disappeared from the human population after a long history of eradicating populations and causing major geopolitical shifts throughout the world. Now though a new case has suddenly appeared in a woman in Washington State after having sexual intercourse with her boyfriend who had recently been vaccinated, proving that the disease is no longer isolated to innocent native people trying to live their lives.
“Seattle & King County (PHSKC) of a suspected case of contact transmission of 
vaccinia virus from sexual contact with a member of the military who had been vaccinated against smallpox,” wrote the CDC. “Despite the patient's exposure history and clinical presentation, the diagnosis initially was not considered by the patient's physician, who ordered laboratory testing for several common sexually transmitted infections. The patient was seen by a second physician and referred to an infectious disease specialist, who obtained a swab sample of a genital lesion for laboratory testing for vaccinia virus. Vaccinia virus was confirmed by the Washington State Public Health Laboratory (WAPHL) and the CDC Poxvirus Laboratory.”
The woman was just one of several recent cases involving soldiers who had recently been inoculated against the disease.
“For many reasons this is a great cause for concern. It’s isolated and could very well 
remain that way as it appears that only people with compromised immune systems seem to be susceptible to the disease but having the disease in the human population at all could be dangerous. The last thing we need is another outbreak of the disease,” said Scrape TV Health analyst Rebecca Phelps. “It was a really devastating disease, at least for the people that didn’t have any kind immunity, and ended up totally eliminating certain groups of people. It was particularly devastating on the native people of the Americas who were basically obliterated by the disease which was brought over by Europeans who were largely immune, paving the way for the rise of power on that continent.”
The disease has been largely credited with a destabilization of the Americas resulting in the demise of the Mayan and Aztec people.
“These cases are more than likely isolated from the general population but it is interesting that they seem to be infecting people of predominantly European heritage. Of course that could be due to many factors not the least of which the fact that there aren’t a whole lot of natives in the military, but the reasons aside it is the result that are interesting,” continued Phelps. “Europeans certainly died from the disease in the early days and populations throughout the continent that hadn’t been exposed certainly suffered but it had existed throughout that area and northern Asia for so long that those populations had largely become immune and it was only the less sophisticated societies, those prone to being conquered that really suffered.”
There have been no reports of infection amongst the native peoples in the state.
Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent
NEWS > HEALTH > WASHINGTON WOMAN PROVES THAT SMALLPOX NOT JUST FOR ERADICATING NATIVES ANYMORE
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