Smallpox, an ancient term for various infectious diseases: the dreaded Smallpox, the almost unknown Alastrim, the Mpox
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction: In 2022, the appearance of cases of Mpox outside the countries where the disease is endemic, and of some cases of human-to-human transmission, alerted the scientific community to a virus that is closely related to the smallpox virus. Mpox is a zoonosis and can be transmitted to humans. Following the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, it is emerging as the most important Orthopoxvirus in terms of public health impact. Methods: In outlining the current situation of Mpox in the world, the authors frame the virus responsible within a broader reflection on the Orthopoxvirus family, focusing particular attention on the Variola virus, which formerly caused millions of deaths. Discussion: Since Edward Jenner initiated the practice of vaccination, a progressive and careful vaccination campaign has led to the eradication not only of human smallpox but also of a minor form, called Alastrim, which was caused by the same virus. The mode of transmission of Mpox has been debated. At first, it seemed that the disease mainly, though not exclusively, affected men who had sex with other men. This conviction has been partially revised and the WHO recently changed the name of the disease from Monkeypox to Mpox, thereby alleviating the stigma involved. Conclusion: The recent human cases of Mpox have prompted greater surveillance and research into the biology of MPXV and other closely related poxviruses. Studies have focused on the natural history of the virus, its transmission, pathogenesis, host interactions and evolution, and on the development of drugs and vaccines to prevent its spread.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.009 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".