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Believe me...this IS NOT a disease to just dismiss like that....IT IS LETHAL...and those who do survive are so scarred that they are almost hideous...from all the pictures I have seen coming out of Africa.

It is also highly contagious. In the 18th century Britain, some 6 folks were exposed when a coffin containing the remains of a well known fellow (who died 50 years before of smallpox) was exhumed by accident...they hit it while digging a new grave....cracked open the wooden casket...dust rose up and WITHIN MERE DAYS....all those exposed had smallpox and ALL OF THEM DIED!!

This is another reason to not dismantle our smallpox vaccine manufacture. There is concern that corpses of smallpox victims from previous centuries in sub-arctic regions such as Siberia might thaw and become a source of new infection.

The death rates are based on the vaccine used by WHO to erradicate smallpox. This is the vaccine that is currently in storage. The WHO website says that the risk of death for re-vaccinations is 1:4,000,000. The new vaccine is expected to be safer, but there may be a higher proportion of people with conditions making them vulnerable to complications: weakened immune systems, and excema. Also, there are lots of new antiviral drugs that could be used to treat complications.

I had this rash once (not a joke) and felt horrible, it was a Saturday so I went to one of those medi quick places. The doctor checked me out and thought I might have smallpox, they rushed me to the local hospital bypassing the usual check in procedure and the resident infectious disease specialist examined me. Turned out I had caught Coxackie virus from my daughter who had it two weeks before. Its really rare in adults and can kill an adult. The doctor asked me if I had been doing any strenuous activities and the past week or two I had been digging stumps out and it was like 100 degrees that week. She said I had lowered my immune system working outside in the heat and developed the symptoms. In kids its not a big deal my daughter got over it in like a day but because adults are simply bigger there are more cells for the virus to multiply so you get sicker. Turns out Coxsackie virus is the most common virus after the common cold but only like 1 in 1000 ever develop symptoms. It can also cause meningitus and temporary paralysis which I had in my knees. I recovered after three days but it kicked the crap out of me. I'm a pretty strong dude, pump alot of iron etc, but couldn't believe how this thing hit me. This was a couple of years ago before any terrorist issues and they thought it was smallpox and they took it extremely seriously so I could imagine how they would react now. Plus little kids don't get vaccines now for smallpox and little kids are the ones that usually get Coxackie virus so I could see some panic if there is a locallized outbreak of Coxackie. For some reason Coxackie breakouts are usually in August which is when I got it. Pretty wierd stuff but I thought I'd add the info.

That's it for me. "Igor put the shovel away. No more grave robbin for us."