Abstract
Smallpox, once a global infectious disease of man, has now been eradicated, due to intensive efforts sponsored and supervised by the World Health Organization. However, wide interest in the poxviruses persists, as attested by numerous articles published over the last 10 years. Several reasons may be offered to account for the continuing preoccupation with these agents. From the point of view of human disease, there is a close relationship between the agents of smallpox i.e., variola major and minor, and other mammalian viruses which are enzootic and which produce infection in man simulating variola (Esposito et al., 1977a, Baxby, 1977a; Andrewes and Pereira, 1974), raising the possibility that smallpox virus might re-emerge from one of these agents by mutation.
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© 1981 Springer-Verlag/Wien
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Dales, S., Pogo, B.G.T. (1981). Introduction. In: Biology of Poxviruses. Virology Monographs, vol 18. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-8625-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-8625-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
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