On December 9, 1979, a commission of scientists declared that
smallpox had been eradicated. The disease, which carries around
a 30 percent chance of death for those who contract it, is the only infectious disease afflicting humans that has officially been
eradicated.    
    
Recent research indicates that the smallpox virus may have evolved
as late as 1580 CE.

Dr. Donald A. Henderson (1928-2016) was the epidemiologist
who led the international war on smallpox that resulted
in its eradication.

A self-described “disease detective,” Dr. Henderson being
vaccinated for smallpox.

On December 9, 1979, a commission of scientists declared that
smallpox had been eradicated. The disease, which carries around
a 30 percent chance of death for those who contract it, is the only infectious disease afflicting humans that has officially been
eradicated.

The World Health Organization in 1979.

Venetia Stevenson (born Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson)
(10 March 1938 – 26 September 2022)

Venetia Stevenson, an English-American model, actress and
daughter of Hollywood luminaries who appeared in films including Darby’s Rangers, Island of Lost Women and Horror
Hotel after being labeled “the most photogenic girl in the world”,
has died. She was 84.

According to her brother, actor and photographer Jeffrey Byron,
Stevenson died Monday at a health care facility in Atlanta, Ga.
(The Hollywood Reporter)

Dr.Jonas Salk administered one of the first polio shots.

On February 23, 1954, a group of children from Arsenal
Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, receive the
first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr.
Jonas Salk (above). Thanks to the vaccine, by the 21st
century polio cases were reduced by 99 percent worldwide.

Though not as devastating as the plague or influenza,
poliomyelitis was a highly contagious disease that emerged
in terrifying outbreaks and seemed impossible to stop.

Attacking the nerve cells and sometimes the central nervous
system, polio caused muscle deterioration, paralysis and even
death. Even as medicine vastly improved in the first half of the
20th century in the Western world, polio still struck, affecting
mostly children but sometimes adults as well.

The most famous victim of a 1921 outbreak in America was
future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then a young
politician. The disease spread quickly, leaving his legs
permanently paralyzed.

On December 9, 1979, a commission of scientists declared smallpox
has been eradicated. The disease, which carries around a 30 percent chance of death for those who contract it, is the only infectious
disease afflicting humans that has officially been eradicated.

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Program read the news that smallpox had been globally eradicated.