Medical Health Cluster

Smallpox

Monkeypox: How We Got Here, How Smallpox Vaccines Can Help, and How to Contain It

What is the cause of monkeypox? Monkeypox is a member of the Poxviridae family of viruses called orthopoxvirus and is a double-stranded DNA virus. This subset includes the smallpox (variola), vaccinia, and cowpox viruses. A nice review of monkeypox virus is found in Scientific American. How Is This Virus Transmitted and Where Is […]

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Tracking Down the Last Person to Get Naturally Infected With Smallpox and Why We Need a Cure for a Disease That Doesn’t Exist

Why would you approve a drug for a disease that no longer exists? The simple answer is that the virus that causes the disease still exists, and if it got loose, it would be a weapon of unimaginable catastrophe. That is the rationale for the US Food and Drug Association’s approval […]

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