num_pages: 291
description: Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, &amp; left the survivors disfigured for life. Here is the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it, &amp; the looming dangers it still poses today. The smallpox virus afflicted rich &amp; poor, royalty &amp; commoners, &amp; repeatedly altered the course of human history, as when the Spanish conquistadors brought it to the New World where it decimated the indigenous pop s. In 1796 Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against smallpox, which caused it to eventually disappear in industrialized countries. But lab. stocks of the virus still exist, &amp; clandestine stocks pose a mil. threat.
language: English
title: Scourge: The Once And Future Threat of Smallpox
titlecomplete: Scourge: The Once And Future Threat of Smallpox
genres: Disease, Medical, History, Biology, Medicine, Science, Health, Audiobook, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 491
publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press