The global eradication of smallpox

doi:10.1016/0196-6553(82)90003-7

American Journal of Infection Control

Volume 10, Issue 2, May 1982, Pages 53-59

https://doi.org/10.1016/0196-6553(82)90003-7 Get rights and content

Abstract

On May 8, 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly declared the world free of smallpox. This followed approximately $212$ years after the last documented naturally occurring case of smallpox was diagnosed in a hospital worker in Merca, Somalia. A major breakthrough for the eventual control of this disease was the discovery of an effective vaccine by Edward Jenner in 1796. In 1966 the World Health Assembly voted a special budget to eliminate smallpox from the world. At that time, smallpox was endemic in more than 30 countries. Mass vaccination programs were successful in many Western countries; however, a different approach was taken in developing countries. This approach was known as surveillance and containment. Surveillance was aided by extensive house-to-house searches and rewards offered for persons reporting smallpox cases. Containment measures included ring vaccination and isolation of cases and contacts. Hospitals played a major role in transmission in a number of smallpox outbreaks. The World Health Organization is currently supporting several control programs and has not singled out another disease for eradication. The lessons learned from the smallpox campaign can be readily applied to other public health programs.

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Article The global eradication of smallpox

Abstract

The world's last endemic case of smallpox: surveillance and containment measures

Bull WHO

World Health Organization Tech. Rep. Ser. No. 393

Smallpox: a continuing threat

Hospitals

Global eradication of smallpox

Bull WHO

Immunization against smallpox before Jenner

Sci Am

World Health Organization Tech. Rep. Ser: No. 493

An inquiry into the causes and effects' of the variolae vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire, and known by the name of the cow pox

Benjamin Waterhouse (1754–1846), the “Jenner of America.”

Am J Trop Med Hyg

Selective epidemiologic control in smallpox eradication

Am J Epidemiol

Epidemiological studies in smallpox: a study of intrafamilial transmission in a series of 254 infected families

Indian J Med Res

Smallpox

Article
The global eradication of smallpox