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Review
. 2022 Dec 29;15(1):103.
doi: 10.3390/v15010103.

Smallpox, Monkeypox and Other Human Orthopoxvirus Infections

Galina A Shchelkunova  1 , Sergei N Shchelkunov  1
Affiliations
Review

Smallpox, Monkeypox and Other Human Orthopoxvirus Infections

Galina A Shchelkunova et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

Considering that vaccination against smallpox with live vaccinia virus led to serious adverse effects in some cases, the WHO, after declaration of the global eradication of smallpox in 1980, strongly recommended to discontinue the vaccination in all countries. This led to the loss of immunity against not only smallpox but also other zoonotic orthopoxvirus infections in humans over the past years. An increasing number of human infections with zoonotic orthopoxviruses and, first of all, monkeypox, force us to reconsider a possible re-emergence of smallpox or a similar disease as a result of natural evolution of these viruses. The review contains a brief analysis of the results of studies on genomic organization and evolution of human pathogenic orthopoxviruses, development of modern methods for diagnosis, vaccination, and chemotherapy of smallpox, monkeypox, and other zoonotic human orthopoxvirus infections.

Keywords: chemotherapy; diagnostics; evolution; monkeypox virus; orthopoxviruses; vaccine; variola virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Russian Science Foundation, grant number 19-14-00006-P.