Smallpox Eradication

It has been 40 years since the global eradication of smallpox by the World Health Organization. Bernard Brabin, Professor Emeritus in Tropical Paediatrics, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, commemorates the anniversary with a look back at the various stamp issues that show those who fought against this terrible disease and some famous names of those who fell victim to it.

The story of smallpox eradication starts with the artificial introduction of the infection as an inoculum or vaccine, intended to produce immunity in the host. The principle of vaccination was based on an initial experiment by Doctor Edward Jenner (1749–1823) who inoculated a boy in Berkley, England, on 14 May 1796 with material taken from cowpox sores. Cowpox was a minor disease often contracted by milkmaids from cows, and which seemed to induce immunity to smallpox, although no one knew why. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (variolae meaning smallpox and vacca a cow), which was a word usage devised by Jenner to denote his vaccine’s origin from cowpox.