The First Drug To Treat Smallpox Market Outlook: Ken Research Smallpox is an extremely contagious infection caused by the Variola virus for which there is no known cure. Symptoms include fever, malaise, abdominal and severe back pain. The last known natural case occurred in Somalia in 1977 and due to worldwide vaccination programs, this disease has been completely eradicated. By 1980 the WHO declared that smallpox had completely been eradicated although government and health agencies still have stashes of smallpox virus for research purposes. Nowadays people no longer receive routine smallpox vaccinations as they can have potentially fatal side effects, so only the people that face a high risk of exposure get the vaccine. According to the study, ‘Smallpox – Pipeline Review, H2 2018’, researchers are still carrying out studies on smallpox and its treatments. Since smallpox virus is deadly and contagious the research projects are carried out under extreme authorization. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the Russian State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology are the only two labs in the world approved and known to have smallpox virus. Recently the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first drug to treat smallpox.
This comes as there is a growing concern that the small pox virus may be used in bioterror attacks by terrorists or by people with criminal intentions. This is the main reason why the FDA gave priority review to TPOXX, asmall-molecule antiviral treatment made by the US based SIGA Technologies Inc. and approval was based on research treating animals infected with viruses that were closely related to the virus causing smallpox. Out of the animals tested, less thanone-tenth died compared to the one-third fatality rate among humans who got infected and did not consume the drug. Until now, smallpox treatment consisted of managing symptoms and treatment with three antivirals that are not proven to