You don’t have to catch a disease to make antibodies against it. You can be given a vaccine which makes your body produce antibodies so you are ready to fight off an infection before the germs arrive.

A vaccine contains either dead germs, harmless germs or a harmless germ toxin. When you are vaccinated your lymphocytes make antibodies just as if real germs had got into your body.

One of the first people to use a vaccine was Edward Jenner. In the early nineteenth century he proved that people who caught a mild disease called cowpox were then immune to a killer disease called smallpox.

He scratched the skin of a healthy boy and rubbed pus from a girl with cowpox into the wound. The body caught cowpox. When he recovered Jenner inoculated him with pus from a smallpox victim, but the boy did not catch this disease. We now know that cowpox and smallpox germs have the same antigens, so the boy’s already contained the right antibodies to fight off the smallpox infection.

African slaves were denied certain cultural customs such as their native language, drums, and several other traditions. Some practices were kept and became a part of the American way of life.

In 1721 the smallpox epidemic struck, a Boston slave named Onesimus instructed Cotton Mather, a Puritan cleric, how to inoculate the African way, it was the earliest recorded use of the technique in America, but a common practice in Africa.

Rice – Africans introduced the rice plant to North America and taught the English settlers how to cultivate and irrigate the crop. Rice became so important to South Carolina’s economy that it continued to be the colony’s major crop long after the rest of the South had turned to cotton farming in the 19th century.

Transmission is by droplet or direct, the incubation period is around 10-14 days.

The course of the disease had two forms – the more and less dangerous. The two grew up spots on the body, which moved into the septic blisters. First appeared on the face and forearms and gradually spread throughout the body.

Smallpox

Patients who have overcome the disease, but most remained significant consequences. It was the ugly scars of blisters, not a little used to be a frequent consequence of blindness.

Treatment

The only possible treatment is vaccination. It is only to prevent the spread of infection, and is only effective if they are submitted as soon as possible after diagnosis or at an earlier time when flush vaccination.

A vaccine that can protect humans against infection, is made from cow pox. This discovery was made by an English physician Edward Jenner. Currently, no vaccine against this disease does not.

The first mention of the disease is 3,000 years old and come from Egypt and India. Smallpox was also one of the reasons for the eradication of Native Americans. Virus arrival of colonizers from Europe, against which were resistant, their numbers reduced by 90 percent.

In todays’s world nothing has become more apparent than the threat of bioterrorism. The use of biological weapons have been used in wars many times in history. The United States has become more aware of this threat since September 11, 2001. The fear that the terrorist could use disease-causing organisms or chemical agents against us has raised our curiosity in the potential threats they present.

Some of these biological weapons are:

Anthrax

Smallpox

Plague

Botulism

Tularemia

Viral hemorrhagic fever

Chemical weapons :

ricin

sarin

mustard gas

chlorine

phosgene

hydrogen cyanide

The health care professionals and public health authorities have become more aware of the threat of biological or chemical attacks. When anthrax or other bacterial disease is suspected or confirmed antibiotics stand ready for use. Using antibiotics to freely could lessen their effectiveness. Stockpiling antibiotics is not necessary since most only effect certain organisms and it would be almost impossible to predict which one would be needed.

Vaccination for smallpox may once again be needed. The US stopped vaccinating against smallpox around 30 to 40 years ago because the disease no longer posed a health threat. The virus had been eradicated due to world wide vaccinations. The threat that the virus could be used as a biological weapon remains as long as samples of the virus remain preserved. The disease is very contagious. The disease is fatal in about 30% of the time.

Anthrax the bacterium Bacillus anthracts and it’s spores cause anthrax. The spores that form which produce a toxin than can be fatal to humans and animals. The spores are invisible, orderless,and tasteless. The amount needed to make a person sick is smaller than a speck of dust. Three types are known Cutaneous anthrax ,Inhalation anthrax, and Intestinal anthrax. They can be treated with antibiotics with good results if caught in time. Anthrax is not contagious. Anthrax can be prevented by vaccine but because of side effects the vaccine is limited.

Gas masks may not help in a biological or chemical attack. The masks are created by the basis of the threat at hand. No mask can prevent all biological or chemical invasions. Fear itself is contagious. Cover your nose and mouth if you fear you have came in contact with a gas or chemical and leave quickly out of the area. Rinse your eyes and skin with water quickly. Wash or dispose of contaminated clothes as soon as you can. Experts think small groups are more at risk due to the weapons being difficult to control.

        The agents of Bioterrorism can be used in  their natural form o9r can be deliberately modified to maximize their untoward effects. These modificationbs can include genetic alteration of the microbe so that develops resistance and becomes invulnerable, creation of fine partical aerosols, chemical treatment to stabilize and prolong infectivity and also alteration of host range through changes in surface protein receptors.

        The events of  September 11, 2001, followed by several cases of anthrax broke out in the United States, caused deliberately. Letters laced with infectious anthrax were delivered to news media offices and the U.S Congress. The letters killed 5. Tests on the anthrax strain used in the attack pointed to a domestic source, possibly from the biological weapons program illustrating thevulnerability of American public to terrorist attacks.

        The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified microbial agents that can be potentially used in boterrorism into 3 categories: A, B and C.

CDC Category of Microbial agents:

Category A (Highest priority pathogens)

1. Anthrax
2. Botulism
3. Plague
4. Smallpox
5. Tularemia
6. Viral Hemorrhagiuc fevers

Category B

1. Brucellosis
2. Epsilon Toxin of Clostridium perfringens
3. Food safety threats (Salmonella, E-coli)
4. Psittacosis
5. Q fever
6. Typhus fever
7. Viral encephalitis
8. Watre safety threats (Vibrio cholera)

Category C

     Emerging infectious diseases like Hantavirus, SARS and pandemic Influenza.

Also a result of this increased trade was an increased demand for labor. The Portuguese traded material to African chiefs in exchange for slaves to bring over to the Americas. Slave trading had been common among the African people before this time, but with the increase in demand it became significantly more widespread. The increased magnitude of the African slave trade led inevitably to a resulting demographic catastrophe. Meanwhile, black slaves were being treated as less than human in the Americas, as racism began to flourish. The Native Americans were also exploited in encomiendas, and often died from overwork and exhaustion. Native Americans were also being killed off by diseases, such as smallpox, having been brought over by Europeans and Africans, which they had never been exposed to and had never developed the antibodies to fight off. There was hardship even for those Native Americans who remained, as European weeds and domestic animals drove away game and destroyed crops.

Garry Hoy 

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In 1993 at a company party, Hoy was showing a bunch of interns at the law firm where he worked that it was not possible to break the glass in the Toronto-Dominion Centre. He ran across the room on the 24th floor and flung himself into the glass and bounced off. He had done this stunt many times in the past and on this night he tried a second time. The glass shattered and Hoy fell 24 stories to his death. (There was a professional baseball player whose name was Dummy Hoy.)

Tom and Eileen Lonergan 

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In 1998 the couple went on a scuba diving trip off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. They lost track of the time and remained underwater at the boat’s scheduled departure time. One of the boat’s crew members miscounted how many people were on the boat and the couple was stranded at sea. No one even realized they were missing for two days until someone found one of their bags under a seat on the boat. Despite a massive search their bodies were never found though some of their stuff washed onshore including a desperate plea for help on a waterproof tablet. Speculation surfaced they had faked their own deaths but their bank accounts were never touched and life insurance policies remain unclaimed. Their story was the subject of the 2004 film Open Water. Chilling to watch as the sharks close in.

Visiting Soccer Team 

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In 1998 an entire visiting soccer team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was killed by a forked lightning bolt.

Jonathan Burton 

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In 2000, 19 year old Jonathon Burton went crazy and stormed the cockpit door of Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, Utah. Eight passengers grabbed him and threw him to the floor. An off duty police officer was escorting him to the back of the plane with another man’s help when Burton went crazy again and punched the officer in the mouth. Burton was again thrown to the floor of the airplane and allegedly a large burly man repeatedly slammed himself onto Burton’s chest. Burton was still alive when the plane landed but died soon after of acute asphyxia. No one was ever charged.

Brittanie Cecil 

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In 2002 Brittanie was killed by a hockey puck that flew into the stands during a game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard 

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In 2003 the couple were killed and partially consumed by a grizzly bear in Alaska while Treadwell was filming the bears. Treadwell had been going to Alaska for 13 years and living among and filming the bears. The incident was not directly filmed as the camera was facing away but the audio captured the gruesome details. In 2005 film maker Werner Herzog did a documentary film, Grizzly Man, which discusses Treadwell and his death, including the audio clip. Another chilling film.  

Lee Seung Seop 

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In 2005, this 28 year old South Korean died of acute fatigue after playing the video game StarCraft online for over 50 consecutive hours in an Internet cafe.

Jennifer Strange 

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In 2007, this 28 year old appropriately named woman died of water intoxication while trying to win a Wii video game console during a publicity stunt held by Sacramento, California radio station KDND. The “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest involved having contestants drinking prodigious amounts of water without going to the bathroom.

Richard Wertheim 

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In 1993, Wertheim was working as a linesman at the US Open when a shot by Stefan Edberg hit him in the groin and knocked him backwards and he fractured his skull on the hard surface and died shortly thereafter in the hospital.

Robert Williams 

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In 1979 at a Ford Motor Company plant in Flint Michigan, Williams became what is believed to be the first human killed by a robot when he was ordered to retrieve a part from a storage bin because the robot assigned to that job was being too slow. As Williams grabbed the part the robot’s arm swung around and hit him in the head killing him instantly. Williams family was awarded $10 million dollars in damages.

Janet Parker 

In 1978 Janet Parker was working as a medical photographer at the University of Birmingham Medical School when a researcher at the lab she was working in accidentally released the smallpox virus into the building and it killed Parker. Smallpox had been wiped out in the wild and only existed in labs at that time. Parker’s death led to the suicide of Professor Henry Bedson who was the head of the microbiology department. Parker is believed to be the last human smallpox fatality in history, at least until another accident or worse happens.

Payne Stewart 

In 1999 the Learjet carrying golf professional Payne Stewart, his two agents, a Jack Nicklaus golf course designer and two pilots lost cabin pressure and all aboard died of hypoxia or lack of oxygen. The incident occurred in mid-flight and the Air Force had to send fighter aircraft to monitor the flight of the pilot-less jet. The Lear’s windows were observed to be clouded over with frost due to the lack of cabin pressure. Reportedly the Air Force was prepared to shoot down the Learjet if it ran out of fuel near any type of populated area. After a few hours of pilot-less flight time the plane ended up running out fuel and crashing in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. Stewart had won the US Golf Open at Pinehurst just 4 months prior to his death.