Smallpox--The Death of a Disease: The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer: By D. A. Henderson

Abstract

Smallpox—The Death of a Disease, by D. A. Henderson (1), is a welcome addition to the bookshelves of infectious disease epidemiologists and historians interested in the complex interplay between infectious diseases and the human societies affected by them. While the book devotes a chapter to the disease and the virus that caused it, readers interested in a detailed account of the history of smallpox and the extraordinarily interesting cultural, religious, and social aspects of the disease in various regions of the world should probably turn to The Greatest Killer by Donald Hopkins (2) or at least begin with this earlier work. D. A. (having had the privilege of meeting and talking to Dr. Henderson on multiple occasions, I have, like several generations of infectious disease epidemiologists, come to know and refer to him simply as D. A.) has written a very different book, and it is a book that those interested in disease eradication and public health programs in general would do well to read in order to fully comprehend the importance of priorities, politics, and personalities in the success or failure of such efforts in the “real world.” Some of these very same lessons are, unfortunately, being relearned today as the world comes tantalizingly close to the eradication of poliomyelitis but thus far has been unable to add a second disease to the list of scourges from which humankind has been freed.