Of all the diseases ever suffered by humans, smallpox is the only one to be completely eradicated from the face of the Earth. The few known remaining samples are under heavy guard in research labs ...

The smallpox came in the mail, in a little piece of 350-year-old human skin. And the surprise discovery is dramatically rewriting the history of one of the most notorious diseases to plague humankind.

Smallpox, one of the biggest killers in history, is caused by a virus called variola. Variola causes a distinctive rash and is often lethal. The name variola comes from the Latin word for “spotted” ...

Today there is mounting concern about the threat of a bioterrorist attack using smallpox—so much concern that in October 2001 the American government decided to order enough vaccine to protect ...

View Full Profile. Learn about our Editorial Policies. Thanks to a Cold War-era division of responsibility, smallpox has been held in just two places in the world since 1984: at the CDC labs in ...