History of smallpox centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in December 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011. It has been suggested that smallpox was a major component of the Plague of Athens that occurred in 430 BCE, during the Peloponnesian Wars, and was described by Thucydides. Galen's description of the Antonine Plague, which swept through the Roman Empire in 165–180, indicates that it was probably caused by smallpox. Returning soldiers brought the disease home with them to Syria and Italy, where it raged for
Human disease modifier gene involve large human populations in which genetic modifiers cannot be experimentally manipulated. Thus, in human populations the roles of genetic modifiers are often established by statistical implications, without evidence for causation or opportunity for functional characterization. The study of human disease modifiers and oligogenic disease is a hybrid field that can yield unique and comprehensive insight into complex mechanistic causes of human disease, necessary for the development of effective therapeutics Characterizing complex multi-gene interactions responsible for disease- and further, developing effective therapeutics- is exceedingly difficult, and the molecular mechanisms of few oligogenic diseases have been elucidated. Retinitis pigmentosa is one