Smallpox is a disfiguring disease. Three out of ten cases may die. It is caused by variola virus. The disease is spread by secretions from the patient's mouth and nose, and by material from pocks or scabs. It is transmitted directly from one person to the next. Close contact with patients, or their clothing or bedding, is thus required for infection. A patient who has developed the distinctive symptoms of smallpox will have been exposed to the virus about two weeks previously.

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