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(詳細はhuman populations about 10,000 BC. The earliest credible evidence of smallpox is found in the Egyptian mummies of people who died some 3000 years ago. During the 18th century the disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year, including five reigning monarchs, and was responsible for a third of all blindness. Between 20 and 60% of all those infected—and over 80% of infected children—died from the disease. During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=UC Davis Magazine, Summer 2006: Epidemics on the Horizon )〕〔(How Poxviruses Such As Smallpox Evade The Immune System ), ''ScienceDaily'', February 1, 2008〕 In the early 1950s an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year.〔 As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=WHO Factsheet )〕 After successful vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the eradication of smallpox in December 1979.〔 To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated. ==Eurasian epidemics== It has been suggested that smallpox was a major component of the Plague of Athens that occurred in 430 BCE, during the Peloponnesian Wars, and was described by Thucydides. A recent analysis of the description of clinical features provided by Galen during the Antonine Plague that swept through the Roman Empire and Italy in 165–180, indicate that it was probably caused by smallpox. Returning soldiers brought the disease home with them to Syria and Italy, where it raged for fifteen years and greatly weakened the Roman empire, killing up to one-third of the population in some areas.〔(Plague in the Ancient World ). Loyno.edu. Retrieved on 2011-12-06.〕 Total deaths have been estimated at 5 million.〔(Past pandemics that ravaged Europe ), BBC News, November 7, 2005〕 A second major outbreak of disease in the Roman Empire, known as the Plague of Cyprian (251–266), was also either smallpox or measles. Although some historians believe that many historical epidemics and pandemics were early outbreaks of smallpox, contemporary records are not detailed enough to make a definite diagnosis.〔〔 Originally published as ''Princes and Peasants: Smallpox in History'' (1983), ISBN 0-226-35177-7〕 Most of the details about the epidemics are lost, probably due to the scarcity of surviving written records from the Early Middle Ages. The first incontrovertible description of smallpox in Western Europe occurred in 581, when Bishop Gregory of Tours provided an eyewitness account describing the characteristic symptoms of smallpox.〔 Waves of epidemics wiped out large rural populations.〔(Heather Whipps, "How Smallpox Changed the World' ), ''LiveScience'', June 23, 2008〕 The establishment of the disease in Europe was of special importance, for this served as the endemic reservoir from which smallpox spread to other parts of the world, as an accompaniment of successive waves of European exploration and colonization. Around 400 AD, an Indian medical book recorded a disease marked by pustules and boils, saying "the pustules are red, yellow, and white and they are accompanied by burning pain … the skin seems studded with grains of rice." The Indian epidemic was thought to be punishment from a god, and the survivors created a goddess, Sitala, as the anthropomorphic personification of the disease.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work=The thermal qualities of substance: Hot and Cold in South Asia )〕〔(Vassar: Points out that variolation was regarded as a means of invoking the goddess whereas vaccination was opposition to her. Gives duration of belief until fifty years ago ). Reli350.vassar.edu. Retrieved on 2011-12-06.〕 Smallpox was thus regarded as possession by Sitala. In Hinduism the goddess Sitala both causes and cures high fever, rashes, hot flashes and pustules. All of these are symptoms of smallpox. The clearest description of smallpox from pre-modern times was given in the 9th century by the Persian physician, Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi, known in the West as "Rhazes", who was the first to differentiate smallpox from measles and chickenpox in his ''Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah'' (''The Book of Smallpox and Measles''). Smallpox was a leading cause of death in the 18th century. Every seventh child born in Russia died from smallpox.〔 It killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year in the 18th century, including five reigning European monarchs.〔(Smallpox and Vaccinia ). Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved on 2011-12-06.〕 Most people became infected during their lifetimes, and about 30% of people infected with smallpox died from the disease, presenting a severe selection pressure on the resistant survivors.〔(Smallpox In Europe Selected For Genetic Mutation That Confers Resistance To HIV Infection ). ScienceDaily. November 20, 2003〕 In northern Japan, Ainu population decreased drastically in the 19th century, due in large part to infectious diseases like smallpox brought by Japanese settlers pouring into Hokkaido.〔Macintyre, Donald (Meeting the First Inhabitants ), TIME Asia. 21 August 2000〕 The Franco-Prussian War triggered a smallpox pandemic of 1870–1875 that claimed 500,000 lives.〔(Texas Department of State Health Services, History of Smallpox ). Dshs.state.tx.us. Retrieved on 2011-12-06.〕〔(The War Against Smallpox ). Strategypage.com (2007-09-25). Retrieved on 2011-12-06.〕 In 1849 nearly 13% of all Calcutta deaths were due to smallpox. Between 1868 and 1907, there were approximately 4.7 million deaths from smallpox in India. Between 1926 and 1930, there were 979,738 cases of smallpox with a mortality of 42.3%. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「history of smallpox」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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