On the 8th
In May 1980, representatives of all member states of the World Health Organization met in Geneva and officially declared that the variola virus that caused smallpox had been recorded in the history books two centuries after the discovery of a vaccine.
“Its eradication is the greatest public health triumph in history,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a virtual briefing. “While the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity’s victory over it Smallpox a reminder of what is possible when nations come together to tackle a common health threat, ”he said.
Smallpox is a highly contagious disease that has been transmitted by droplets when in close contact with other people or contaminated objects, causing high fever and a rash that permanently disfigured and often blinded survivors, but many did not survive.
The virus killed up to 30 percent of all infected and is estimated to have
Century, more than 300 million people were killed.
Smallpox is believed to have existed for thousands of years, with the earliest documented evidence of the blister-like skin lesions believed to be caused by the mummy of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V.
discovered disease. The devastating disease was also the target of the world’s first vaccine, discovered in 1796 by scientist and doctor Edward Jenner: “Public Will”.
“But the idea of completely eradicating smallpox did not arise until almost two centuries later, in 1958, amid a” momentary ‘relaxation’ between Russians and Americans, “as US epidemiologist Larry Brilliant told the AFP at a time when Smallpox remained endemic in more than 30 countries and still killed more than two million people annually, the Soviets proposed to show what global cooperation is good for and …
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