is small pox still around?

Question

this person i know couldnt pick me up fromt he airport becasue he got small pox. i thought that was gone in the 1930s.

Answer 1

No, smallpox is still alive and well in some countries, Terrorists have their own scientists developing strains of it , which are more powerful than the original.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Small pox is still alive and well in 3rd world countries and many die from it every year.
Small pox went away for many years here in the USA because of the vaccine and went away so well that they quit giving the vaccine but now they are suspecting that it is slowing making a come back.
I would suspect it is due in part because of all of the travels people make today.
There is some thought of bringing the vaccine back and in all reality it is such an easy vaccine to take that I don't really know why this country let it's guard down by not making it part of a childs immunizations all these years.

Answer 4

Officially the only two remaining stashes of smallpox are owned and controlled by the US and the Russian federation. Many weak strains are studied and experimented on around the world in government research institutes and universities.

It is thought, at this stage, more than likely that during the breakup of the USSR, at least some of the stocks went missing, just like the nuclear warheads and god knows what else. It is thought more than probable that in this case, some of that is in the hands of terrorist organizations, though in unweaponized form. Everyone from conspiracy theorists to reasonable political analysts think it likely that both the US and USSR have produced or tried to produce bioweaponry from the disease.

The disease was eradicated in "the wild" by the WHO some time in the sixties, I think, in a worldwide immunization program, much like they're trying to do with malaria right now. So basically unless your friend has travelled forward in time from the sixties, was working in a disease lab in the USSR in 1991, or hangs around with international criminals, he's definitely lying.

Answer 5

It was eradicated in the 1970s, but the virus is still preserved in some laboratories, including those in the US. It should be destroyed to avoid it falling into the wrong hands, or spreading accidently.
Some people confuse chicken pox with smallpox.

Answer 6

Nope it has been completely eradicated! However, it does exist in some laboratories around the word the CDC has samples of it. They have been thinking if they should destroy their samples or not. So far they have kept them in case of a bio weapon made with the virus. By the way the last case was in Africa in the 1960's NOT Bangladesh 10 years ago. National Geographic Magazine did a special on it in the 70's with pictures of the last person who had contracted it. It was pretty ugly

Answer 7

tjinjapan is right! Checked my facts and agree I should not have depended on memory!

CORRECTED ANSWER

Actually the last known case of smallpox was reported in Somalia in 1977. The last case in the U. S. was in 1949. The World Health Organization has declared the world free of smallpox.

There are still samples of the organisms in various government agencies in a couple of countries.

Answer 8

Actually...I hear it's making a come-back. Seriously. I don't know much about it at all, but I don't think it's easy to get. Sounds to me like he/she either meant "chicken pox" or didn't want to stick to their word.

Answer 9

It is not extinct, but its also not spreading anywhere, and is rare enough very few people get vaccinated against it. The world's biggest problem right now is AIDS & Malaria.

Answer 10

Richard Preston's book "The Demon in the Freezer" is about biological weapon grade smallpox, if anyone's interested in reaading more about it.