What does smallpox do to the body?

What happens to the outside of your body when you have smallpox?

• Answer:

  The "rash" comes out first as small red spots in the mouth which turn into sores that break open; about the same time the mouth sores break down, you start to get the "rash" - flat red spots over your face, then arms and legs, then hands and feet (including the palms and soles), with the fewest on your torso; that is the biggest thing that distinguishes early smallpox from chicken pox, which is more on the torso and less on the head and limbs and rarely on palms and soles. Also, in smallpox all of the lesions on a part of the body are in he same stage, not some old and some newer like chicken pox. The spots usually completely cover you within 24 hours, and by the third day you have them they become raised bumps. By the fourth, the bumps fill with a thick, opaque fluid and have a little pit in the middle. (This is when you usually get your fever back). Then the bumps become pustules: they are sharply raised, almost round, and firm like there is a BB pellet embedded in the skin. After 5 days becoming and being pustules they begin to scab over, which takes about 5 more days. Then the scabs will fall off over the next six or so days, leaving pitted scars. Most scabs will have come off by three weeks after the rash appears. You are still contagious until ALL of your scabs have fallen off.