Smallpox vaccine
A vaccine that contains a live virus called vaccinia that is used to prevent smallpox. The vaccine does not contain the variola virus that causes smallpox, but exposes the immune system to proteins that look like the virus so that an immune response occurs. Through the use of the vaccine, smallpox was eliminated from causing human infection in the world in 1977. Routine vaccination against smallpox ended in 1972. The level of immunity among persons who were vaccinated before 1972 is uncertain. In people exposed to smallpox who are not immune to the disease, the vaccine can lessen the severity of or even prevent the illness if given within 4 days of exposure.
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The sense that provides information about an object’s scent, often giving clues to the palatability of food, the safety of air, and other matters. The organs of smell are made up of patches of tissue called the olfactory membranes that are each about the size of a postage stamp. These membranes are located in a […]
- Smell, inability to
No sense of smell is called anosmia. It can be due to loss of the sense of smell or failure for it to develop. Loss of the sense of smell can be due to a number of things including swelling within the nose that prevents odors from gaining access to the olfactory (smell) area. The […]
- Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome
A multiple congenital malformation syndrome caused by an abnormality in cholesterol metabolism, deficiency of the enzyme 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR7), due to mutation of the DHCR7 gene on chromosome 11. The syndrome is characterized by growth retardation, microcephaly (small head), mental retardation, and malformations that include distinctive facial features, cleft palate, heart defects, underdeveloped external genitalia […]
- Smith-Magenis syndrome
A syndrome of abnormal physical, developmental and behavioral features due to microdeletion of chromosome 17 (loss of a very small segment from chromosome 17). The face is characterized by a short flat head, prominent forehead, broad square face, upslanting eyeslits, deep-set eyes, underdeveloped midface, broad nasal bridge, short nose, tented upper lip, and a chin […]
- Smoke, second-hand
Environmental tobacco smoke that is inhaled involuntarily or passively by someone who is not smoking. Environmental tobacco smoke is generated from the sidestream (the burning end) of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and from the exhaled mainstream (the smoke puffed out by smokers) of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. Environmental tobacco smoke was classified as a […]