One of the infectious diseases that was widespread in Fars province during the first Pahlavi era (1925-1941) was smallpox. This disease spread in the early days of the Pahlavi dynasty in the cities of Fars province and its epidemic reached its peak in 1318 AD. Important measures were taken to control the disease, including smallpox inoculation. The smallpox inoculators tried to control the disease by creating fixed and mobile posts and by injecting the patient with smallpox fluid or animal smallpox fluid. Despite the efforts of local authorities in the field of smallpox, there were several obstacles and problems to reduce and eradicate the disease. This study intends to study the prevalence of smallpox in Fars and the trend of smallpox to deal with it in the first Pahlavi period by relying on unpublished documents in the Documents Organization and the National Library of Iran as well as the archives of local newspapers and using a descriptiveanalytical method. Findings showed that despite the widespread epidemic of smallpox in Fars in the first Pahlavi period and the high mortality rate, the trend of smallpox inoculation progressed well and the government succeeded in using existing facilities and common methods to help control the disease in the regions of Fars.

Background: Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in the west as Rhazes, was born in 865 AD in the ancient city of Rey, near Tehran and died in the same town about 925 AD. He was the first person who distinguished the infectious rashes, in particular smallpox, from measles in a masterful demonstration of clinical observations, providing valid guidelines for the sound treatment of both. This study compares Rhazes Diagnostic Differentiation of Smallpox and Measles.Methods: There is an attempt in this study to compare modern microbiology with the chapters of Rhazes’s fi Aljadari wa-al-hasbah. We used this book in its original language (Arabic) along with its Persian and English translations.Results: Rhazes was among the first to recognize the need for sanitation of infected patients in hospitals. Rhazes prepared Al-Jodari Wa Hasbah, the first treatise ever written on smallpox and measles for diagnostic differentiation between these two infections, which is the basis for new medicine to diagnose and treat smallpox and measles, according to his experience of patients in hospital. He also noted that the cause of these infections was the yeast transmitted by the blood route. Today, the cause of smallpox and measles is known to be viruses. Rhazes not only classified the type of infections based on location and the time of the appearance of the symptoms in these two infections, but also he scaled the degree of severity and prognosis of infections according to the color and location of rashes.Conclusion: The method of differential diagnosis of measles and smallpox was precisely described based on his clinical experience and observation in hospitals; it is the best reference in the history of medicine for recognition of these two infections. This article is a review of Rhazes’s views in medicine and their comparison with the modern microbiology.

The system of Iranian medicine in the Qajar era was the continuation of the system based on the humors view. Accordingly, the incidence of most diseases was attributed to whole view of the quadruple imbalance of blood, soda, bile, phlegm. Preventive and therapeutic approaches were also carried out in the same cognitive atmosphere. The example of Smallpox disease, indicates such a view in the Qajar era. According to the findings of this research, in Qajar medical literature, the bumps of pus in the skin of is described to be hard, single or non-separated with different colors and was called as Jodri or Smallpox. In terms of cognitive aspects, physicians of Qajar era following former physicians classified Smallpox disease in terms of humor among the hot and wet diseases and described boiling of blood in the body as the cause of this disease. Exposure to this disease was through the two pathways preventive and therapeutic measures. In order to prevent the disease, the necessary orders was recommended by the physicians by “ sette zarurieh” and especially avoidance of several behaviuors. In terms of therapy, along with several types of diets, different kinds of medicines was used to relieve the symptoms and complications of the disease at different body parts. This study is a review, it has been attempted to examine the nature and purpose of the descriptive and analytical method and the therapeutic approach to treating Smallpox disease in medical system of Iranian Qajar era. Required information and data have been created in a desk research.

Smallpox, which currently is only of historical interest, was once one of the most terrible illnesses with high mortality and morbidity. In the late 18th century, the English physician and naturalist, Edward Jenner (1749 - 1823), discovered an efficient preventive technique against smallpox which he termed "vaccination". Afterwards, the practice of vaccination gradually became widespread when finally in 1979, the World Health Organization formally declared the global eradication of this fatal disease.Presented here is a brief account of smallpox eradication in Iran which started on a limited scale in the 19th century by the order of Abbas Mirza (1789 - 1833), the Crown Prince of Fath Ali Shah Qajar (reign from 1797 - 1834), and reinforced in 1848 by Mirza Taghi Khan Amir Kabir (1807 - 1852) the Prime Minster of Naser ad-Din Shah, and became more popular after the establishment of the Pasteur Institute in Tehran in 1921, where considerable doses of smallpox vaccine were produced. In addition, in subsequent years, a law that mandated public smallpox vaccination was passed by the Iranian parliament (Majles) in 1953 and eventually, the mass vaccination program led to the complete eradication of smallpox in Iran in 1978.

2Monkeypox can spread rapidly among humans. Over 10,000 new Monkeypox virus(MPV) cases were reported between May 4 and July 12, 2022. It is transmitted through contact with infected animals, respiratory droplets, and shared items. Symptoms are similar to smallpox but milder. Smallpox is caused by variola virus (VAV). The halt in smallpox vaccinations has left 70% of the world unvaccinated against related viruses.  Preliminary genetic data shows differences between VAV and MPV. Though their core genomic regions are nearly identical, the end genomic regions exhibit significant differences in factors like virulence and host domain. Immunity against VAV also protects against MPV; the smallpox vaccine offers strong resistance to MPV in around 85% of individuals. However, immunity against smallpox has decreased over the years, leading to increased susceptibility to monkeypox in unvaccinated adults aged 21 to 40, and indicating a risk of MPV transmission and higher illness prevalence in older populations. The increase in monkeypox cases, changing transmission patterns, the decreased immunity against smallpox, and the potential for bioterrorism are all reasons to monitor the situation closely and implement measures to contain these viruses.

Dear Editor-in-Chief Smallpox was always one of the terrible causes of massacre by its epidemics worldwide (1). Alt-hough some local societies like nomads of Balu-chistan (southeast of Iran) used natural vaccina-tion like method for Smallpox (2), finding vac-cination for eradication smallpox is credited for Edward Jenner in 1978 (3). In Iran, by spreading eradication of Smallpox in the early 20th century AD, there was a national effort to control it (4). Fars Province was one of the regions affected by this disease.