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Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your
question...it's a good one.
I would start by
saying that as a result of the small pox vaccine development (which
began with Edward Jenner in 1796 - please see
Small pox vaccine
history for
more accurate historical data), small pox no longer kills or infects
human beings.
Small pox first
appeared in China about 2000 years ago. The Pharaoh Ramses V died of it.
When the conqueror Hernando Cortez came to America, he brought it with
him, and as a result, 3.5 million Aztecs died of small pox in a 2 year
period.
The last naturally
occurring outbreak was in Somalia, October, 1977, and has essentially
been eradicated from the face of the earth.
Moving on to
chicken pox...
We generally view
chicken pox as a passing childhood illness, which doesn't really hurt
any one. The truth of the matter is that chicken pox kills. I know this
first hand. Within a 2 month period when I was working intensive care in
Detroit, we saw two previously healthy young kids (I believe the girl
was 12 and the boy 10), who both had an overwhelming case of chicken
pox. It infected their lungs, liver, kidneys, and other soft tissues.
Both were on long term life support, and one died.
Also, the older we
are when we contract it, the more severe it seems to be.
Chicken pox is
caused by a virus known as Varicella. Small pox was caused by a virus
known as Variola (major and minor). They are different bugs, and
antibodies are bug specific. So, having chicken pox wouldn't protect you
against small pox.
So, the best for
all of us is to prevent any disease that has the capacity to kill us. We
have done that with Small pox. Hopefully, we can do that with chicken
pox and many other diseases, too.
Dr. Mike
This
article was reviewed
04/23/2010 07:24 AM
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