How is smallpox spread? What are the symptoms?
• Smallpox is extremely infectious and is spread from one person to another by infected saliva droplets. Exposure may come from face-to-face contact, airborne spread (coughing or sneezing), or through direct contact with contaminated materials. People with smallpox are most infectious during the first week of illness because that is when the largest amount of virus is present in saliva. However, some risk of transmission lasts until all scabs have fallen off. • The incubation period for the disease ranges from about seven to 17 days following exposure. Initial symptoms include high fever, fatigue, headache, and backache. A rash–most prominent on the face, arms and legs–follows in two to three days. The rash starts with flat red lesions that evolve at the same rate. Lesions become pus-filled and begin to crust early in the second week. Scabs develop, and then separate and fall off after about three to four weeks. The majority of patients with smallpox recover, but death occurs in up t
