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Medical Author:

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP

Mary D. Nettleman, MD, MS, MACP is the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Michigan State University. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt Medical School, and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Indiana University.

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Medical Editor:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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In this Article

• What is smallpox?
• What is the history of smallpox?
• What causes smallpox?
• How is smallpox transmitted?
• What are smallpox symptoms and signs?
• How is smallpox diagnosed?
• What is the treatment for smallpox?
• Can smallpox be prevented with a vaccine?
• What is the prognosis for smallpox, and what are complications of smallpox?
• Where can people find more information on smallpox?
• Smallpox At A Glance
• Find a local Doctor in your town
• Smallpox Index

When smallpox was common, an experienced clinician could make the diagnosis simply by looking at the rash and examining the patient. Any case that occurs now will likely be a result of bioterrorism or biological warfare. In that event, misdiagnosis or delays in diagnosis could cause the infection to spread. Thus, it is still important for clinicians to be able to diagnose smallpox. The CDC has developed an online tool to help clinicians assess the likelihood that a rash is due to smallpox (http://emergency.cdc.gov.proxy1.cl.msu.edu
/agent/smallpox/diagnosis/#diagnosis).

If smallpox appears possible, public-health authorities should be notified immediately and their instructions on the protective measures for medical caregivers and others are followed carefully. They can help determine if additional testing is warranted. Material from blisters, throat swabs, and blood samples may be tested for the presence of variola DNA or cultured. These tests are done at the CDC and require prior authorization. The person(s) obtaining the specimens should have a recent smallpox vaccination (within three years) or no contraindication to immediate vaccination.

Figure 2: Picture of smallpox in a child. SOURCE: Dr. Jean Roy/CDC

Treatment for smallpox is supportive, meaning that the patient should be kept hydrated, fever should be treated with acetaminophen (Tylenol) or a similar medication, and the patient should be closely monitoring to determine if there is a need for blood pressure support. Although there are no medications that have been proven to work against human infection, some medications have shown promise in the laboratory, including a derivative of the antiviral drug cidofovir (Vistide).