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Eur J Med Chem 2021 Apr 29;221:113485. Epub 2021 Apr 29.

Department of Organic Chemistry, Samara State Technical University, 244 Molodogvardeyskaya St., Samara, Samara Region, 443100, Russia.

Currently, smallpox, caused by the variola virus belonging to the poxvirus family, has been completely eradicated according to the WHO. However, other representatives of poxviruses, such as vaccinia virus, cowpox virus, ectromelia virus, monkeypox virus, mousepox virus and others, remain in the natural environment and can infect both animals and humans. The pathogens of animal diseases, belonging to the category with a high epidemic risk, have already caused several outbreaks among humans, and can, in an unfavorable combination of circumstances, cause not only an epidemic, but also a pandemic. Read More

Front Mol Biosci 2021 15;8:635337. Epub 2021 Apr 15.

Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt, Jordan.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, arose at the end of 2019 as a zoonotic virus, which is the causative agent of the novel coronavirus outbreak COVID-19. Without any clear indications of abatement, the disease has become a major healthcare threat across the globe, owing to prolonged incubation period, high prevalence, and absence of existing drugs or vaccines. Development of COVID-19 vaccine is being considered as the most efficient strategy to curtail the ongoing pandemic. Read More

Front Public Health 2021 12;9:630449. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Livestock and One Health, Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.

COVID-19 has disrupted everyday life worldwide and is the first disease event since the 1918 H1N1 Spanish influenza (flu) pandemic to demand an urgent global healthcare response. There has been much debate on whether the damage of COVID-19 is due predominantly to the pathogen itself or our response to it. We compare SARS-CoV-2 against three other major pandemics (1347 Black Death, 1520's new world smallpox outbreaks, and 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic) over the course of 700 years to unearth similarities and differences in pathogen, social and medical context, human response and behavior, and long-term social and economic impact that should be used to shape COVID-19 decision-making. Read More

Probl Sotsialnoi Gig Zdravookhranenniiai Istor Med 2021 Mar;29(2):379-384

Udmurt Federal Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 426067, Izhevsk, Russia.

The article considers the main facts of the biography of the field-doctor I. T. Voskoboynikov during his activities in the Kama mills (Izhevsk and Votkinsk ironworks) in the Vyatka Guberniya. Read More

J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect 2021 Mar 23;11(2):163-170. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

COVID-19 is not the world's first pandemic, not its worst, or likely to be its last. In fact, there have been many pandemics throughout history with lessons for the current one. The most destructive pandemic of all time, at least in terms of the number of people killed in the shortest time, was the "Spanish flu" pandemic of 1918/1919. Read More

J Med Biogr 2021 Apr 22:9677720211010461. Epub 2021 Apr 22.

Department of Ophthalmology, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.

The 17th and 18th centuries witnessed an intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment that made possible future revolutions such as the scientific. No person better characterizes the Enlightenment than Voltaire (1696-1976) who, in his book published in 1734, venerated the liberalism of English institutions while criticizing the of France. He was convinced that the personal freedom the English enjoyed was responsible for their country's success, pointing to inoculation for smallpox and advances in science as evidence. Read More

Proc Biol Sci 2021 Apr 21;288(1949):20210356. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku 20014, Finland.

Social life is often considered to cost in terms of increased parasite or pathogen risk. However, evidence for this in the wild remains equivocal, possibly because populations and social groups are often structured, which affects the local transmission and extinction of diseases. We test how the structuring of towns into villages and households influenced the risk of dying from three easily diagnosable infectious diseases-smallpox, pertussis and measles-using a novel dataset covering almost all of Finland in the pre-healthcare era (1800-1850). Read More

J Dent Educ 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Biochemistry, Louisiana State University Health Center, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.

Major pandemics have tremendous effects on society. They precipitated the early decline of the Western Roman Empire and helped spread Christianity. There are countless such examples of infectious diseases altering the course of history. Read More

Front Immunol 2021 30;12:627932. Epub 2021 Mar 30.

Biodiscovery Institute, University of Nottingham, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Vaccination was first pioneered in the 18th century by Edward Jenner and eventually led to the development of the smallpox vaccine and subsequently the eradication of smallpox. The impact of vaccination to prevent infectious diseases has been outstanding with many infections being prevented and a significant decrease in mortality worldwide. Cancer vaccines aim to clear active disease instead of aiming to prevent disease, the only exception being the recently approved vaccine that prevents cancers caused by the Human Papillomavirus. Read More

Intern Emerg Med 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Department of Medicine, "San Giovanni di Dio Hospital", Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano Isontina, Gorizia, Italy.

Future Microbiol 2021 04 13;16:371-374. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.

Front Mol Biosci 2021 16;8:618068. Epub 2021 Mar 16.

Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Riverside, CA.

Poxviruses are dangerous pathogens, which can cause fatal infection in unvaccinated individuals. The causative agent of smallpox in humans, , is closely related to the bovine , yet the molecular basis of their selectivity is currently incompletely understood. Here, we examine the role of the electrostatics in the selectivity of the smallpox protein SPICE and vaccinia protein VCP toward the human and bovine complement protein C3b, a key component of the complement immune response. Read More

J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2021 Apr 2. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Archaeology, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Pathogens 2021 Mar 31;10(4). Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Laboratório de Vírus, Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG 31270-901, Brazil.

Orthopoxvirus (OPV) infections have been present in human life for hundreds of years. It is known that Variola virus (VARV) killed over 300 million people in the past; however, it had an end thanks to the physician Edward Jenner (who developed the first vaccine in history) and also thanks to a massive vaccination program in the 20th century all over the world. Although the first vaccine was created using the Cowpox virus (CPXV), it turned out later that the Vaccinia virus was the one used during the vaccination program. Read More

Pathogens 2021 Mar 21;10(3). Epub 2021 Mar 21.

State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology VECTOR, Rospotrebnadzor, Koltsovo, Novosibirsk 630559, Russia.

Following the WHO announcement of smallpox eradication, discontinuation of smallpox vaccination with vaccinia virus (VACV) was recommended. However, interest in VACV was soon renewed due to the opportunity of genetic engineering of the viral genome by directed insertion of foreign genes or introduction of mutations or deletions into selected viral genes. This genomic technology enabled production of stable attenuated VACV strains producing antigens of various infectious agents. Read More

Viruses 2021 03 28;13(4). Epub 2021 Mar 28.

Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Department, Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées, 91220 Brétigny-sur-Orge, France.

The eradication of infectious diseases has been achieved only once in history, in 1980, with smallpox. Since 1988, significant effort has been made to eliminate poliomyelitis viruses, but eradication is still just out of reach. As the goal of viral disease eradication approaches, the ability to recreate historically eradicated viruses using synthetic biology has the potential to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of eradication. Read More

Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol 2021 Feb 19. Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Fellowship (IVF &Reproductive Medicine) Milann Fertility Centre, Bengaluru, India.

Vaccination during pregnancy is important for active immunity of the mother against serious infectious diseases, and also for passive immunity of the neonate to infectious diseases with high morbidity and mortality. As a rule, live vaccines are contraindicated during pregnancy as they may cause fetal viremia/bacteremia. Inactivated vaccines are generally safe. Read More

Lancet 2021 04 24;397(10284):1524-1527. Epub 2021 Mar 24.

N Engl J Med 2021 Mar 20;384(12):1081-1083. Epub 2021 Mar 20.

From the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania - both in Philadelphia.

Emerg Infect Dis 2021 04;27(4)

A monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria during 2017-2020 provides an illustrative case study for emerging zoonoses. We built a statistical model to simulate declining immunity from monkeypox at 2 levels: At the individual level, we used a constant rate of decline in immunity of 1.29% per year as smallpox vaccination rates fell. Read More

J Am Geriatr Soc 2021 Apr 22;69(4):1103-1104. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

Department of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.

Harefuah 2021 Mar;160(3):189-190

Faculty of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Glob Med Genet 2021 Mar 19;8(1):32-37. Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies, and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.

Recently, it was found that proteomes from poliovirus, measles virus, dengue virus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome-related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have high molecular mimicry at the heptapeptide level with the human proteome, while heptapeptide commonality is minimal or absent with proteomes from nonhuman primates, that is, gorilla, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque. To acquire more data on the issue, analyses here have been expanded to Ebola virus, , human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), , Variola virus, and . Results confirm that heptapeptide overlap is high between pathogens and , but not between pathogens and primates. Read More

Rev Prat 2020 10;70(8):924-926

École pratique des hautes études, Paris, France.

Hum Vaccin Immunother 2021 Mar 2;17(3):738-746. Epub 2020 Dec 2.

Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, Faculty of Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

The reemergence of smallpox as a bioterrorism attack is now an increasing and legitimate concern. Advances in synthetic biology have now made it possible for the virus to be synthesized in a laboratory, with methods publicly available. Smallpox introduction into a susceptible population, with increased immunosuppression and an aging population, raises questions of how vaccination should be used in an epidemic situation when supply may be limited. Read More

Ugeskr Laeger 2021 03;183(11)

This review is about the development and use of vaccines from the early smallpox vaccine in the 18th century to the forthcoming SARS-CoV 2 vaccines. Immunisations have been of paramount importance for childhood mortality and public health in general, but some obstacles have also been encountered such as vaccine failures and vaccine scepticism. This calls for continued emphasis on large phase three studies not only for demonstration of efficacy but also for safety and possible side effects. Read More

J Infect Dis 2021 Mar 17. Epub 2021 Mar 17.

Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road. Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

Background: Monkeypox is a poorly described emerging zoonosis endemic to Central and Western Africa.

Methods: Using surveillance data from Tshuapa Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo during 2011-2015, we evaluated differences in incidence, exposures, and clinical presentation of PCR-confirmed cases by sex and age.

Results: We report 1,057 confirmed cases. Read More

Acta Histochem 2021 Mar 13;123(4):151710. Epub 2021 Mar 13.

College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA. Electronic address:

Antibodies are essential tools in modern science and medicine, however the history leading to the use of antibodies as tools has not been well-described. The objective of this paper is to analyze the history of immunology from smallpox inoculation to the production of monoclonal antibodies, and to identify turning points in immunological theory leading to the emergence of antibody-tools. In the early 1700's, Western medicine adopted smallpox inoculation from Turkey, along with the idea of acquired immunity. Read More

Disaster Med Public Health Prep 2021 Mar 15:1-7. Epub 2021 Mar 15.

Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA, USA.

Objective: In March 2018, the US Department of Defense (DOD) added the smallpox vaccination, using ACAM2000, to its routine immunizations, increasing the number of persons receiving the vaccine. The following month, Fort Hood reported a cluster of 5 myopericarditis cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the DOD launched an investigation. Read More

Int Health 2021 Mar 10. Epub 2021 Mar 10.

International Trachoma Initiative, The Task Force for Global Health, PO Box 10001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

There have been various infectious disease eradication programs implemented in various parts of the world with varying degrees of success since the early 1900s. Of all those programs, the one that achieved monumental success was the Smallpox Eradication Program (SEP). Most of the global health leaders and authorities that came up with the new idea of disease eradication in the 1980s tried to design and shape the new programs based on their experience in the SEP. Read More