Smallpox Eradication

Abstract The eradication of smallpox began in the late 1700s with the discovery by Edward Jenner and others that inoculation into the skin with cowpox protected against smallpox. On May 8, 1980, the World Health Assembly (WHA) accepted the conclusions of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication that “the world and all its people have won freedom from smallpox, which was a most devastating disease.” The World Health Organization earned this achievement through its intensified smallpox eradication program (SEP), conducted from 1967 to 1979. The triumph of the SEP has served as an impetus for other disease elimination and eradication initiatives.