The smallpox story: Life and death of an old disease

Abstract

Smallpox, a disease of antiquity, was one of the greatest scourges of mankind. In endemic form and in waves of epidemics, it killed and disfigured innumerable millions of people throughout the world. Variolation, the immunization of susceptible individuals with material taken from smallpox lesions, was practiced in Asia and Africa for many centuries; it was introduced into Britain by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in 1721. As variolation was not a safe protective measure. Dr. Edward Jenner introduced vaccination (using cowpox virus instead of smallpox virus) into Britain in 1796. As a result of widespread vaccination, smallpox declined steadily in Europe and North America. Elsewhere, however, death from smallpox prevailed. In January 1967, The World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a program for the global eradication of smallpox. This was achieved in October 1977 when the last person to acquire naturally occurring smallpox in the world recovered from this disease in Somalia, Africa. Currently, there is concern about the emergence of naturally occurring animal poxviruses (e.g. monkeypox virus, which also infects humans) as possible widespread agents of human poxvirus disease. I became faimiliar with the ravages of smallpox during my childhood in Persia and have ever since been anxiously following the progress of global efforts to eliminate this disease from the entire world. Now that smallpox is dead, it is therefore with a great sense of relief and much joy that I recount the fascinating story of the long fight with this dreadful scourge.