Vaccines and Preventable Diseases:
Smallpox Photos
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WARNING: Some of these photos might be unsuitable for children. Viewing discretion is advised.
Photos of the Disease
From the Public Health Image Library
http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp
Highly magnified at 310,000X, this negative-stained transmission electron micrograph (TEM) depicted a smallpox (variola) virus particle, or a single “virion”.
A transmission electron micrograph of smallpox viruses using a negative stain technique.
This electron micrograph depicts the variola, smallpox virus using a negative stain technique; Magnification 65,000X.
Images of People Affected by the Disease
From the Public Health Image Library
http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp
This 1969 photograph depicted a Dekina, Nigerian male smallpox sufferer, and revealed the maculopapular rash dispersed over the victim’s face, which displayed numerous coalescent lesions; lesions were also visible on this patient’s arms and chest.
This photograph, taken in Dekina, Nigeria, showed a smallpox patient with many lesions on his face; this disease usually spares the chest and back.
A severe case of smallpox lesions on the face of patient living in Accra, Ghana, 1967.
Man with smallpox.
This photograph, taken in Dekina, Nigeria, showed a sleeping child who had presented with smallpox lesions over most of the child’s body.
This photograph reveals the back of a Nigerian child with smallpox. Note the pustules are centripetal in distribution, radiating from their densest area of eruption on the upper back, and outwards along the extremities. All the skin lesions are at the same stage of development.
This young girl in Bangladesh was infected with smallpox in 1973.
Close-up of smallpox pustules found on the thigh of a patient during the sixth day of the rash.
Smallpox lesions on the hands of a patient in Accra, Ghana.
Additional Images and Regulations
- Amercan Academy of Pediatrics (exit)
- CDC's smallpox images (exit)
- CDC's vaccine reaction images
- Immunization Action Coalition (exit)
- Public Health Image Library (PHIL)
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Content last reviewed on April 22, 2007
Content Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases