The disease was controlled and then eradicated by vigorous surveillance and containment, backed up by vaccination. Furthermore, even such important animal diseases as sheeppox and camelpox are less important than animal infections caused by other pathogens. Clinical Manifestations Poxvirus infections are characterized by the production of skin lesions. When seen by the physician, cowpox and parapox lesions are usually hemorrhagic crusting ulcers, but early in infection the former are usually vesicular and the latter nodular. The lesions of molluscum, usually multiple, are firm, pearly, flesh-colored nodules.
Numbers indicate progression of infection.
Parapox and molluscum infections are relatively painless and cause very little constitutional disturbance. Rare encephalitic complications of cowpox have been reported, and erythema multiforme is a complication of parapox infections. Infection in immunocompromised or eczematous individuals is more severe and usually results in generalized illness, and in cowpox has caused deaths. Smallpox vaccination has been associated with serious complications. However, routine use of smallpox vaccine has been discontinued, and any future use of recombinant vaccinia virus vaccines will involve attenuated strains, thus reducing the chances of complications.