A highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars; SYN. variola.
Acute, highly contagious viral disease, marked by aches, fever, vomiting, and skin eruptions leaving pitted scars. Widespread vaccination programs have eradicated this often fatal disease.
It was endemic in Europe until the development of vaccination by Edward Jenner about 1800, and remained so in Asia, where a virulent form of the disease (variola major) entailed a fatality rate of 30% until the World Health Organization campaign from 1967, which resulted in its virtual eradication by 1980. The virus now survives chiefly in storage in various research institutes.