Smallpox (Noun)
Meaning
A highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars.
Classification
Nouns denoting natural processes.
Examples
- The doctor had to quarantine the village after a case of smallpox was discovered, to prevent the spread of the disease.
- Smallpox is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal illness that has been responsible for an estimated 300-500 million deaths in the 20th century.
- The World Health Organization launched a global campaign to eradicate smallpox in the 1960s, and was successful in doing so in 1980.
- Symptoms of smallpox include high fever, headache, and muscle ache, followed by a characteristic skin rash with flat red spots that eventually turn into pus-filled blisters.
- After recovering from smallpox, survivors often bear the scars on their faces and bodies for the rest of their lives, a testament to the severity of the disease.