The Ledger · Entry 05
Smallpox is the first human disease ever eradicated
Reported smallpox cases worldwide, then eradication
Smallpox killed roughly a third of the people it infected, and had done so since antiquity. A worldwide vaccination and ring-containment campaign hunted each outbreak to its edge, ending in the last natural case in 1977.
The key rows
From the record
DECLARES SOLEMNLY THAT THE WORLD AND ALL ITS PEOPLES HAVE WON FREEDOM FROM SMALLPOX, WHICH WAS A MOST DEVASTATING DISEASE SWEEPING IN EPIDEMIC FORM THROUGH MANY COUNTRIES SINCE EARLIEST TIMES, LEAVING DEATH, BLINDNESS AND DISFIGUREMENT IN ITS WAKE AND WHICH ONLY A DECADE AGO WAS RAMPANT IN AFRICA, ASIA AND SOUTH AMERICA;
In 1980 the World Health Assembly declared the disease gone. It remains the only human disease ever eradicated.
Asked often
When was smallpox eradicated?
The World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated on 8 May 1980, in resolution WHA33.3. The last natural case was recorded in 1977.
Is smallpox the only eradicated disease?
Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. Rinderpest, a cattle disease, is the only other eradicated disease of any kind.
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