RT Book, Section A1 Arrington, Amy S. A2 Kline, Mark W. SR Print(0) ID 1182903794 T1 Smallpox T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 23e YR 2018 FD 2018 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9781259588594 LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182903794 RD 2024/10/11 AB Smallpox is a highly infectious disease caused by the variola virus. Two distinct variola viruses (major and minor) exist, and each manifests different clinical characteristics and host mortality. The most common form of smallpox described in the literature was due to variola major, which resulted in severe, disfiguring disease and carried a 30% mortality rate. The mildest form of smallpox was due to variola minor (also known as alastrim), which presented similarly to variola major but with less toxicity and had more superficial lesions that resulted in a faster healing time and lower mortality (1%). The diagnosis of variola minor was based on the assessment of an outbreak and its severity. If there were few deaths (1%), then the disease was determined to be variola minor.