Who is most likely to get smallpox?

Answer 1

Humans are the only species to be infected by smallpox. The history of smallpox extends into pre-history; the disease likely emerged in human populations about 10,000 BC.

The earliest credible evidence of smallpox is found in the Egyptian mummies of people who died some 3000 years ago. During the 18th century the disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year, including five reigning monarchs, and was responsible for a third of all blindness. Between 20 and 60% of all those infected, and over 80% of infected children, died from the disease.
Settlement of the east coast of North America in 1633 in Plymouth, Massachusetts was also accompanied by devastating outbreaks of smallpox among Native American populations, and subsequently among the native-born colonists. Some estimates indicate case fatality rates of 80–90% in Native American populations during smallpox epidemics.

U.S. Presidents George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln all contracted and recovered from the disease.

To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated.

Answer 2

At this time not one person anywhere in the world is at any risk with smallpox as the disease was completely eradicated from the wild in 1980 by vaccinations. There are only two samples of live smallpox virus in the world and they are cryogenically frozen in liquid nitrogen, one is in the US and one is in Russia. Production of smallpox vaccine has also ceased as there is no more need for it.

Answer 3

Anyone not immune to the virus

(not a common virus anymore though)