![]() In Europe, smallpox became an endemic disease by the eighteenth century exposure often happened in childhood, which meant that virtually the entire adult population was immune. Over the course of a little more than three centuries, outbreaks of the disease appeared sporadically in colonial America. Survivors can take up to a month to recover fully they are left with scars, but also lifetime immunity.Įuropean colonization introduced smallpox to the Americas in the sixteenth century. Death often comes within about two weeks. Witnesses and survivors of smallpox describe immense suffering. It can take up to fourteen days before a person exposed to the virus will show symptoms: fever, headaches, body pains, and eventually the telltale rash. Smallpox, caused by the Variola major virus, spreads only from person to person. After heavy losses in Boston and Quebec, Washington implemented the first mass immunization policy in American history. ![]() Infrequent outbreaks and wariness of inoculation made his troops very susceptible to the disease. ![]() ![]() In the first years of the Revolutionary War, George Washington and his Continental Army faced a threat that proved deadlier than the British: a smallpox epidemic, lasting from 1775-1782. ![]()
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