ChronoFive
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Setting the scene
Variola virus had killed pharaohs and Inca emperors; Edward Jenner's 1796 vaccination and WHO's 1966 Intensified Eradication Programme deployed ring vaccination, surveillance, and freeze-dried vaccine stable in tropical heat.
What happened
Smallpox was declared eradicated on May 8, 1980, when the World Health Assembly accepted the Global Commission's verdict that no natural variola major cases had occurred since Somalia's Ali Maow Maalin in 1977.
Why it still matters
Vaccination campaigns ended a scourge dating to antiquity, leaving laboratory stocks in Atlanta and Koltsovo under debate; smallpox remains the only human disease driven to extinction, a blueprint for polio campaigns facing vaccine hesitancy.
Background
Vaccination campaigns ended a scourge dating to antiquity.