History of smallpox virus

What is Smallpox? Signs and Symptoms. Prevention and Treatment. History of Smallpox. Vaccine Basics. For Clinicians. For Laboratory Personnel. Other factors that played an important role in the success of the intensified efforts included the development of the bifurcated needle, the establishment of a case surveillance system, and mass vaccination campaigns. By the time the Intensified Eradication Program began in , smallpox was already eliminated in North America and Europe Cases were still occurring in South America, Asia, and Africa smallpox was never widespread in Australia.

The Program made steady progress toward ridding the world of this disease, and by smallpox was eradicated from South America, followed by Asia , and finally Africa In late , three-year-old Rahima Banu from Bangladesh was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major. She was also the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was isolated at home with house guards posted 24 hours a day until she was no longer infectious.

A house-to-house vaccination campaign within a 1. A member of the Smallpox Eradication Program team visited every house, public meeting area, school, and healer within 5 miles to ensure the illness did not spread. They also offered a reward to anyone who reported a smallpox case. Ali Maow Maalin was the last person to have naturally acquired smallpox caused by variola minor.

Maalin was a hospital cook in Merca, Somalia. On October 12, , he rode with two smallpox patients in a vehicle from the hospital to the local smallpox office. On October 22, he developed a fever. At first healthcare workers diagnosed him with malaria, and then chickenpox. The smallpox eradication staff then correctly diagnosed him with smallpox on October Maalin was isolated and made a full recovery.

Maalin died of malaria on July 22, , while working in the polio eradication campaign. Janet Parker was the last person to die of smallpox. She worked one floor above the Medical Microbiology Department where staff and students conducted smallpox research.

She became ill on August 11 and developed a rash on August 15 but was not diagnosed with smallpox until 9 days later. She died on September 11, Her mother, who was providing care for her, developed smallpox on September 7, despite having been vaccinated two weeks earlier.

Almost two centuries after Jenner hoped that vaccination could annihilate smallpox, the 33 rd World Health Assembly declared the world free of this disease on May 8, Many people consider smallpox eradication to be the biggest achievement in international public health. Following the eradication of smallpox, scientists and public health officials determined there was still a need to perform research using the variola virus.

Smallpox was likely present in Europe by about CE. Some estimates indicate that 20th-century worldwide deaths from smallpox numbered more than million. The last known case of wild smallpox occurred in Somalia in Bibliography for the Smallpox Timeline. Did You Know? Edward Jenner learned from a milkmaid that she believed herself protected from smallpox because she had caught cowpox from a cow.

The World Health Organization launched the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Programme, which eventually led to the disappearance of smallpox. Future President Contracts Smallpox. Andrew Jackson , future U. Featured Video. Watch the progression of a case of smallpox in a young man who survived the disease.