Smallpox Eradicated: Last Natural Case Confirmed
Ali Maow Maalin, a 23-year-old hospital cook in Merca, Somalia, developed the last natural case of smallpox on October 26, 1977. He survived. Two years later, the World Health Organization officially certified the disease eradicated, the first and still only time humanity has deliberately eliminated a major infectious disease. Smallpox killed an estimated 300 million people in the twentieth century alone. The eradication campaign, launched in 1967, relied on ring vaccination: rather than vaccinating entire populations, teams tracked every outbreak and vaccinated everyone around it. The strategy worked even in war zones, refugee camps, and areas with no infrastructure. Two laboratory samples survive at the CDC in Atlanta and the VECTOR institute in Russia. Whether to destroy them remains one of science's longest-running debates.
October 26, 1977
49 years ago
Key Figures & Places
World Health Organization
Wikipedia
vaccination
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smallpox
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Somalia
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Ali Maow Maalin
Wikipedia
Smallpox
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World Health Organization
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Vaccination
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Merca (Somalia)
Wikipedia
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