Pox Viruses

On the origin of smallpox: Correlating variola phylogenics with historical smallpox records

“…One encompasses the biologically distinctive South American isolates traditionally known as alastrim minor, and the other is composed of West African isolates. Limited historical medical documents indicate that alastrim was described by indigenous people in central Brazil as a disease with pustular rash similar to smallpox but with a markedly low fatality rate (13)(14)(15). The first published description of this clinically distinct mild type of smallpox was in the Caribbean region by Anderson in the 1860s (16), and the disease was later exported to Florida and subsequently elsewhere in North America (17).…”

Characteristics of a new poxvirus isolated from indian buffaloes

“…A distinguishing feature of the subgroup is that recovery from infection with one member confers immunity to the others. The members of the subgroup are those viruses causing variola, alastrim, cowpox, ectromelia, monkeypox, rabbitpox and vaccinia (9,14,1). With the exception of vaccinia virus there are no apparent differences in the major characters of separate isolates of a particular member of the subgroup and there should be little difficulty in identifying them.…”

Smallpox and Related Poxvirus Infections in the Simian Host

“…VARIOLA-VACCINIA GROUP OF POXVIRUSES "Poxvirus" has been adopted as a convenient term to denote a number of viruses which have many features in common, although they comprise several immunologically unrelated subgroups (3). The criteria for inclusion in the group are: (i) large virus particles of rounded quadrangular form, with the longest diameter in the range of 200 to 250 mnu; and (ii) predilection for infection of skin epithelium, with formation of cytoplasmic inclusion bodies (24). The close immunological relationship of certain viruses serves as the basis for the formation of a subgroup of the poxviruses, the variola-vaccinia group.…”