What were the symptoms of smallpox?
The symptoms of smallpox started with chills, high fever, headache, joint and muscle pains (especially backache), nausea and vomiting. The classic smallpox skin rash appeared several days after the other symptoms. The skin rash became raised and then pus-filled. The pustules ruptured, then dried and crusted over. The rash was painful, most dense on the face, arms, and legs, and caused severe itching and burning. Many people who had this disease died from it, and it left permanent scars on many who survived. Some milder forms of smallpox also occurred. How soon after exposure did symptoms appear? The symptoms appeared from 8-16 days after the exposure, with an average of 10-12 days. How long could an infected person spread smallpox? Infected persons spread the disease until all of the crusts had dropped off the skin and disappeared. This usually happened by about two weeks after the rash began. Smallpox was considered a highly communicable disease, meaning that it was easily spread from
