On 8 May 1980, the WHO announced that smallpox had been eradicated from the world. Global eradication refers to the permanent worldwide reduction of cases to zero, with no known sources of infection that could generate a new case.
The declaration that the world was free of smallpox came more than two years after the last recorded cases in the three countries where the smallpox virus had proved hardest to eradicate: Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The global campaign against smallpox began in 1967. Back then, the estimated prevalence of the disease was 10 million cases, it was endemic in more than 30 countries and was frequently imported to at least 12 further countries. Against this background, how was worldwide eradication achieved in little more than ten years? The answer lies in certain features of the smallpox virus, the efficacy of the vaccine that prevents it, and the manifestations of the disease, as explained in Box 3.
A key aspect of the public health approach to smallpox eradication was the adoption of a case containment policy. Instead of removing smallpox patients to hospitals for treatment, where the disease rapidly spread, most infected people were supported to remain in their own homes. Infected villages were sealed off until the patient recovered or died and all known or suspected contacts had been vaccinated.
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