Smallpox News and Research

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Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus, a member of the Orthopox virus family. It is one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity, with a mortality rate as high as 30%. In 1967, the World Health Organization embarked upon an intensified vaccination campaign to eliminate smallpox, which culminated in the successful eradication of the disease globally by 1980.

By the mid-1980s, there were only two known repositories of variola virus: the Institute of Virus Preparations in Russia, and the US CDC. The events in the US in September and October 2001 highlighted the risk that the variola virus might be used as an agent of bioterrorism. Governments around the world are taking precautionary measures to be ready to deal with a potential smallpox outbreak.

Federal cuts ripple through a bioscience hub in rural Montana

Scientists are often careful to take off their work badges when they leave the campus of one of the nation's top research facilities, here in southwestern Montana's Bitterroot Valley.

27 May 2025

US withdrawal from global health bodies threatens millions with hunger and disease

A new Perspective in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition warns of catastrophic global nutrition and health impacts if the US withdraws from the WHO and dismantles USAID. The authors urge urgent policy reversal and call for collaborative global action to prevent widespread humanitarian crises.

19 May 2025

Measles could return to endemic status if US vaccination rates fall further

Declining childhood vaccination rates in the United States could lead to a resurgence of measles and other previously eliminated infectious diseases. Simulation models predict that even current vaccination rates may be insufficient to prevent measles from becoming endemic within 20–25 years.

27 Apr 2025

New vaccine targets sugar shield to protect against multiple coronaviruses

Sugar coatings aren't only for candies; they also help viruses, like the ones that cause COVID-19, hide from their hosts' immune system.

23 Apr 2025

Mpox virus poses rising global epidemic and pandemic threat

Insufficient research on mpox hinders effective control strategies, emphasizing the need to understand its transmission and immune response mechanisms.

7 Apr 2025

Research highlights rising risk of human-to-human mpox transmission

Mpox has the potential to become a significant global health threat if taken too lightly, according to scientists at the University of Surrey.

1 Apr 2025

Artificial intelligence tool predicts virus outbreak hotspots

A new artificial intelligence tool could aid in limiting or even prevent pandemics by identifying animal species that may harbor and spread viruses capable of infecting humans.

31 Mar 2025

The impact of ending U.S.-funded global vaccine programs

Abram Wagner, assistant professor of epidemiology and global public health at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, discusses implications of the U.S. potentially ending global vaccine programs.

27 Mar 2025

Scientists develop universal vaccine targeting multiple coronaviruses

Sugar coatings aren't only for candies; they also help viruses, like the ones that cause COVID-19, hide from their hosts' immune system.

25 Mar 2025

Tecovirimat monotherapy found ineffective for treating clade II mpox in NIH-sponsored trial

NIH-sponsored trial data offer further evidence to help inform mpox treatment decisions.

12 Mar 2025

Engineering safe and effective vaccinia virus vectors for next-generation vaccines

Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. Vaccinia virus (VACV) confers cross-protective immunity against the variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, and has therefore been extensively exploited as a preventive vaccine. Despite the global eradication of smallpox in the 1980s, research efforts involving VACV have continued due to the potential threat of the variola virus being used as a bioweapon, which poses grave risks to human health.

14 Feb 2025

Study explains why tecovirimat fails against some mpox strains

A virus originally found in animals, mpox – which causes the disease of the same name – is now circulating in humans.

13 Feb 2025

The growing list of human viruses: Are we prepared for the next outbreak?

Researchers review the ever-growing list of human viruses, examining their diversity, transmission pathways, and the urgent need for prevention and global surveillance.

12 Feb 2025

WHO regrets United States’ decision to withdraw from the organization

The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the United States of America intends to withdraw from the Organization.

22 Jan 2025

Syphilis family traced to Pre-Columbian Americas

In spring 1495, the Italian campaign of Charles VIII of France was interrupted by an intense outbreak of an apparently unknown illness – a disease of high mortality that quickly engulfed the whole of Europe and left its survivors with life changing impairments to their bodies and minds.

18 Dec 2024

Interim analysis of STOMP study finds no efficacy for tecovirimat in mild to moderate Mpox cases

The antiviral drug tecovirimat did not reduce the time to lesion resolution or have an effect on pain among adults with mild to moderate clade II mpox and a low risk of developing severe disease, according to an interim data analysis from the international clinical trial called the Study of Tecovirimat for Mpox (STOMP).

10 Dec 2024

How measles, whooping cough, and worse could roar back on RFK Jr.’s watch

The availability of safe, effective covid vaccines less than a year into the pandemic marked a high point in the 300-year history of vaccination, seemingly heralding an age of protection against infectious diseases.

6 Dec 2024

Scientists fear what’s next for public health if RFK Jr. is allowed to ‘go wild’

Many scientists at the federal health agencies await the second Donald Trump administration with dread as well as uncertainty over how the president-elect will reconcile starkly different philosophies among the leaders of his team.

14 Nov 2024

As nuns disappear, many Catholic hospitals look more like megacorporations

Inside the more than 600 Catholic hospitals across the country, not a single nun can be found occupying a chief executive suite, according to the Catholic Health Association.

5 Nov 2024

Vaccination of young children could dramatically reduce mpox deaths in DRC

Vaccinating children under five-years-old in endemic mpox regions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) would significantly reduce the number of deaths in the country, according to a new analysis by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.

22 Oct 2024