Which poxvirus disease was the first to be eradicated?
Answer: C
Smallpox was both the first disease to be controlled by immunization and the first to be eradicated. The other poxvirus infections of humans persist, several of them in animal reservoirs that make eradication impractical.
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The last endemic case of smallpox occurred in
Answer: D
Correct answer: 1977
The last naturally acquired case was in Somalia in October 1977. That date matters because eradication is not declared on the last case but only after a long period of surveillance has failed to find another - which is why the confirmation date is later. A laboratory-acquired case occurred in Birmingham in 1978, but it was not endemic transmission.
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Eradication of smallpox was confirmed in
Answer: A
Correct answer: 1980
Two years of intensive global surveillance after the Somali case of 1977 found no further transmission, and the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated in May 1980. It remains the only human disease ever eradicated. The gap between the last case and the declaration is deliberate: it is the evidence that the chain of transmission has actually been broken.
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The strategy that achieved smallpox eradication was
Answer: B
Vigorous surveillance and containment, supported by vaccination, is what finished the task. Finding cases and vaccinating around them proved more effective than vaccinating populations indiscriminately, and smallpox had no animal reservoir to remove.
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Vaccinia virus is now used chiefly as
Answer: C
Correct answer: a vaccine vector
Vaccinia was the virus used to vaccinate against smallpox, and with smallpox gone that purpose disappeared. What survives is its usefulness as a delivery system: its large genome tolerates the insertion of foreign genes, it replicates in the cytoplasm, and it provokes a strong immune response, so a recombinant vaccinia can present antigens from quite unrelated pathogens to the immune system.
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Human monkeypox is transmitted by
Answer: D
Transmission occurs by contact and also by the airborne route to the respiratory mucosa, which distinguishes it from the poxviruses that require broken skin. That route is part of why the infection becomes generalized rather than staying local.
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The mortality of human monkeypox is approximately
Answer: A
Human monkeypox causes a severe generalized infection with a mortality of about 10 per cent, which is far more serious than the localized poxvirus infections. Molluscum contagiosum and parapox, by contrast, are relatively painless and self-limited.
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Most poxviruses other than monkeypox enter the body by
Answer: B
Entry through a break in the skin is the usual route, and it produces a localized lesion at the site rather than a generalized illness. Monkeypox is the exception, spreading by contact or through the respiratory mucosa.
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Cowpox infection in humans is characterised by
Answer: C
Cowpox produces painful lesions accompanied by enlargement of the draining lymph nodes. That contrasts with molluscum contagiosum and parapox, which are relatively painless, and with monkeypox, which is generalized and often fatal.
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Molluscum contagiosum and parapox infections are described as
Answer: D
Correct answer: localized and relatively painless
These are the mild end of the poxvirus family. Molluscum contagiosum produces small umbilicated skin nodules, and the parapoxviruses give orf and milker’s nodule - lesions confined to the site of contact, causing little pain and resolving without treatment. They stand in contrast to smallpox, which was generalized, systemic and frequently fatal.
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