Tag Archives: smallpox

Epidemics, Uncategorized

Frank Fenner 1914-2010

It is with great sadness that I report the death of one of my science heroes, Frank Fenner. One of the key people involved in the eradication of smallpox, he was also a prolific researcher in poxvivrology, and discoverer of the virus I study, ectromelia virus. Although I never met him, I have read many of his papers and they have influenced my own research and interests.

Here is the text of the email I received this morning, from Julio Lincio:

“Frank John Fenner AC, CMG, MBE, FRS, FAA (born 21 December 1914,died 22 November 2010) was an Australian scientist with a distinguished career in the field of virology. His two greatest achievements are cited as overseeing the eradication of smallpox during his term as Chairman of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication, and the control of Australia’s rabbit plague through the introduction of myxoma virus.

Professor Fenner was Director of the John Curtin School from 1967 to 1973. During this time he was also Chairman of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication. In 1973 Professor Fenner was appointed to set up the new Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University (ANU). He held the position of Director until 1979.

Professor Fenner has been elected a fellow of numerous faculties and academies, including Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1954), Fellow of the Royal Society (1958), and Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1977).

During his career Professor Fenner received many awards. Among these are the Britannica Australia Award for Medicine (1967), the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science Medal (1980), the World Health Organization Medal (1988), the Japan Prize (1988), the Senior Australian Achiever of the Year (1999), the Albert Einstein World Award for Science (2000), and the Prime Minister’s Science Prize (2002).

A man of decisive scientific action and strong opinions, Professor
Fenner’s last interview with The Australian is extremely thought provoking and can be found here

A summary of Frank’s remarkable career can be found here”

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Epidemics, Evolution, Immunology

Monkeypox and Herd Immunity

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In 1980, smallpox was declared eradicated following an intensive global vaccination campaign.  The virus, Variola, has some close relatives that can infect humans, one of which is monkeypox.  Monkeypox isnt nearly the problem that smallpox was; it has a much lower mortality rate and outbreaks tend to fizzle out quickly due to poor human-to-human transmission.

However, a recent paper suggests that monkeypox infections are becoming an increasing problem.  So why is it emerging now?  Its a problem we’ve been anticipating, actually.  Turns out that when you get the smallpox vaccine (or smallpox itself), it also protects you from monkeypox.  So pre-eradication, most people were immune to monkeypox.  If you met up with an infected animal, chances are you were immune and wouldn’t get infected.  If you did somehow get infected, chances are most people around you were immune so you couldn’t transmit it to others.  An immune host is not fertile ground for viral replication, so whenever immune hosts are encountered, the chain of viral transmission ends.  In fact, a highly vaccinated population helps those few individuals that are not vaccinated by greatly limiting the potential of the virus reaching the unvaccinated (“naive”) individual.  Thats called herd immunity.

Turns out herd immunity to smallpox, and therefore monkeypox, is waning.  Vaccinations stopped in 1980 so anyone born after that is naive and therefore there is a major lapse in herd immunity.  Risk of infection with monkeypox virus is now as much as 20 times greater than 30 years ago.  Interestingly, all those old people born before 1980 who were vaccinated have a much lower risk of infection, telling us that immunity from vaccination lasts 30+ years.

So why should we worry about waning herd immunity to a rare and relatively mild disease that is hardly contagious?  Well, variola and monkeypoxviruses are about 96% identical.  We dont know how much  monkeypox needs to mutate to become sustainable in humans or more virulent.

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