The Nation
People must wonder why small pox was such a devastating killer of men. Why, of all the pestilences with which man has battled, has this one taken more lives than most of the others put together? The first reason that can be adduced for this property is the infectiousness of the organism responsible for small pox infections.
Apart from the fact that it was directly transmissible from man to man, it was airborne and therefore needed only a favourable wind for it to be set on fire, ready to burn through any settlement, large or small into which it was introduced. This is why it was associated with the heat of the dry season in the tropics. It was easily carried on the dry harmattan winds which stir up the dust laden air which carry the pathogen.
Once inhaled, the virus quickly moved from the lungs through virtually all parts of the body through the blood stream until it got to the skin where it erupted into the tell-tale pock marks which spread terror far and wide. Once a person was stricken with this infection, nothing could be done to effect a cure as with all viral infections, there was no cure and the infection must run its course and for many, this course ended in death.
All that could be done for the victims of small pox was necessarily palliative and such measures could only be carried out by people who had survived the infection. It must have been a harrowing experience for relatives and friends who did not know what the outcome of a particular infection would be and must take their own lives out of danger by fleeing as far away from the stricken person as possible.
This is of course impossible in populated areas unless of course the settlement could be abandoned in time but even this was futile since the disease would have been transmitted to others before it revealed itself in all its gruesome glory. It is not difficult to imagine why small pox was such an efficient harvester of souls.
