Smallpox Declared Eradicated
WHO officially declared smallpox eradicated - the only human disease completely eliminated
May 08, 1980
The Only Disease Humanity Has Eliminated
On May 8, 1980, the World Health Organization officially declared smallpox eradicated — the first and still the only human infectious disease to be completely eliminated from nature. For thousands of years, smallpox had killed approximately 30% of everyone it infected and left survivors blind or scarred. In the 20th century alone, it killed an estimated 300 million people — more than all the wars of that century combined.
The Campaign That Did It
Eradication required a global vaccination campaign coordinated by the WHO across cold wars, political conflicts, and remote terrain. The strategy — called "ring vaccination" — focused on finding every case and vaccinating everyone around that person before the disease could spread. The last naturally occurring case was a 23-year-old cook in Somalia named Ali Maow Maalin, who survived in October 1977. His was the last case. Two years of surveillance confirmed no more existed.
What It Proved
Smallpox eradication proved that a global public health campaign could eliminate a disease entirely — if there is enough political will, coordination, and funding. It is the model for subsequent campaigns against polio and other diseases. Samples of smallpox virus still exist in two secure laboratories — one in the US, one in Russia — a source of ongoing debate about whether they should be destroyed. No one alive today has been vaccinated against it.