The CDC was instrumental in eradicating smallpox, identifying the causes of HIV and encouraging Americans to get the COVID-19 shot.

The World Health Organization had declared mpox a global health threat in 2022 and 2024. While most mpox infections are mild, some can be fatal, and cases are spreading in Africa.

Alaskapox was discovered in 2015 and has generally only caused mild illness – until now.

There are two approved monkeypox vaccines in the US. Both use a related poxvirus called vaccinia to produce an immune response that protects against smallpox and monkeypox.

Some of the omicron variant’s unique properties – such as its ability to spread rapidly while causing milder COVID-19 infections – could usher in a new phase of the pandemic.

Chickenpox has largely disappeared from the public’s memory thanks to a highly effective vaccine. But the virus’s clever life cycle allows it to reappear in later adulthood in the form of shingles.

Public health experts know that schools are likely sites for the spread of disease, and laws tying school attendance to vaccination go back to the 1800s.

When Bostonians in 1721 faced a deadly smallpox outbreak, a new procedure called inoculation was found to help fend off the disease. Not everyone was won over, and newspapers fed the controversy.