A vaccine against smallpox exists, but governments’ supplies have dwindled since the disease was declared eradicated in 1980. Smallpox virus is preserved in laboratories in the United States and ...

The observation that milkmaids are frequently infected with cowpox but rarely catch smallpox is generally credited to the English doctor Edward Jenner. Although Jenner might not have been the first ...

A teenager in the Netherlands who rescued a drowning kitten from a ditch developed a large, blackened open wound on her wrist, which took multiple doctors several weeks to find its rare cause, ...

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a beautiful milkmaid. Her face was flawless, her complexion peaches and cream, her smile confident as she bragged, "I shall never have smallpox for I have ...

Around thirty Europeans, including twenty French citizens, have recently contracted a viral infection linked to their pet rat. Two reseach teams in Marseille, France, led by Didier Raoult, director of ...

Two versions of an oral drug that halts the deadly action of smallpox and related orthopox viruses have been shown by researchers in Alabama and California to be effective in cowpox-infected mice, ...

In southern New York state, a dairyman, his wife and their hired man stretched out their hands palm upwards, like suppliants, to Dr. H. P. Senftner, associate director of the state department of ...

Douzhen dinglun (Definitive Treatise on Pox Diseases) by Zhu Chunxia (Qing period, 1644-1911) is a paediatric text in three volumes. It deals mainly with different types of pox rashes, prevention and ...

Sixteenth century Aztec drawing of smallpox victims. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. One of the most celebrated medical anniversaries concerns a country doctor named Edward Jenner (1749-1823) who lived ...

It is mind-boggling that researchers still don't know exactly what virus was used in the most successful vaccine ever developed. But the mystery around the identity of the virus used by British ...