WHO Regions. WHO Regional Offices were responsible for conducting the SEP.
Select a country from the drop-down list in one of the WHO Regions below.
Notes on Regions: 1) Africa is a single region within WHO. African divisions represent the CDC program in Western and Central Africa and the administrative divisions used by the SEP. 2) The newly independent state of Bangladesh joined WHO in the South-East Asia Region in 1972. Formerly East Pakistan, it had been included with West Pakistan in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. 3) Ethiopia was part of the Eastern Mediterranean Region until 1977, when it joined the African Region.
Notes on countries: 1) Several countries changed names during or after the SEP. We have included both names and have tried to list the current name first. 2) Map boundaries are approximate, and do not not necessarily represent WHO membership or political status during the entire period of the SEP.
● Clinical features and epidemiology
● Laboratory research
● Laboratory diagnosis
● Therapy and prophylaxis
Operational Principles and Procedures
● Handbook for smallpox eradication programmes in endemic areas
● Surveillance and containment
● Assessment
● Cooperation and coordination
● Operations and logistics
● Post-eradication recommendations
● Variola virus stocks
● Variola and orthopoxvirus research
● Vaccine reserves
● Other
● Techniques
● Complications and contraindications
● Multiple antigens
● Vaccination policy
● Variolation
Orthopoxviruses and Other Diseases
● Orthopoxviruses (monkeypox and other animal pox viruses)
● Other diseases (chickenpox, measles, viral hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Marburg, Lassa))
The Smallpox Eradication unit at WHO Headquarters in Geneva circulated reports to SEP national and international staff. In addition to the Smallpox Surveillance Report included in WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER), the unit distributed the Target Zero Progress Report and some 450 reports from field staff detailing observations, outbreak investigations, experiments, and so on. A number of field reports were revised and published in scientific journals.
Dr DA Henderson, unit chief, notes: "From the beginning of the program, a special effort was made to encourage field staff to write up their observations and to send them in to us in Geneva. It was my expectation that in compiling information and writing it up that surveillance would be strengthened and that new ideas and concepts in one area would be communicated and applied in other areas as well."
Epidemiologic reports for WHO's Weekly Epidemiological Record. Supplemented with additional tables.
Reports for SEP field staff detailing progress toward the goal of zero cases of smallpox.
The World Health Organization was founded in 1949 with a long-term objective “to make the … world immune to smallpox by proper vaccination."
World Health Assembly and Executive Board
Reports, debate, and resolutions about smallpox, beginning in 1949.
International and Global Commissions for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication.
Reports to and from the International and Global Commissions
CDC (then the Communicable Disease Center) conducted a USAID-funded Smallpox Eradication/Measles Control Program in 20 western and central Africa countries during 1966-1972.
Most countries were newly independent. French was the common language in 13 (the Central African Republic, Chad, the Congo, Dahomey, Gabon, Guinea, the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Upper Volta). English was the common language in 5 (the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone). Cameroon used both French and English. Equatorial Guinea joined the program after independence from Spain in 1968.
For more information on the origin of the CDC/USAID West Africa program, see Smallpox and its Eradication, chapter 17.
| Year | Title | Authors | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965-6 | Program Development | |||
| 1966 | Professional staff, CDC Smallpox eradication program, 10 Aug 1966 | |||
| 1965 | Memorandum. Tour report: West Africa, 18 November-17 December, 1965. | Gelfand HM | DA Henderson personal papers | |
| 1966 | Project for Smallpox Eradication and Measles Control in 19 Countries of West Africa. Draft, 21 Jan 1966 | DA Henderson personal papers | ||
| 1966 | Regional smallpox eradication and measles control in Africa (FY 1967 - 1971) [Document for press and public] | CDC/USAID | DA Henderson personal papers | |
| 1966 | West Africa smallpox eradication/measles control program. Manual of operations, Oct 1966 | CDC | CDC #21418 | |
| 1966-67 | Internal Reports | |||
| – Status Report #1. Memo to Chief of CDC, 7 Dec 1966 | Millar JD, Chief SEP/CDC | |||
| – Status Report #2. Memo to Chief of CDC, 16 Dec 1966 | Millar JD, Chief SEP/CDC | |||
| – Status Report #3. Memo to Chief of CDC, 18 Jan 1967 | Millar JD, Chief SEP/CDC | |||
| – Memorandum. Status report as of Feb 20, 1967 | George Lythcott | CDC #21450 | ||
| – Status Report #4. Memo to Chief of CDC, 27 Mar 1967 | Millar JD, Chief SEP/CDC | |||
| – Regional project office and field monthly report No. 3. 12 Apr 1967 | CDC #21412 | |||
| – Regional project office and field monthly report No. 4. 12 May 1967 | CDC #21413 | |||
| 1966-67 | Surveillance Reports, CDC West Africa Smallpox Eradication/Measles Control Program | |||
| – Surveillance Report No. 1: Smallpox | 1966 Aug 1 | CDC #21415 | ||
| – Surveillance Report No. 2: Smallpox | 1966 Sep 1 | CDC #21416 | ||
| – Surveillance Report Report No. 3:Smallpox; Yellow fever | 1966 Oct 1 | CDC #21417 | ||
| – Surveillance Report Report No. 5:Smallpox; Measles; Leprosy; Population of major cities | 1966 Dec 15 | CDC #21409 | ||
| – Surveillance Report No. 6: Smallpox | 1967 Mar 17 | CDC #21410 | ||
| – Surveillance Report No. 7: Smallpox: India, Europe, United States, West Africa | 1967 Apr 24 | CDC #21411 | ||
| 1967-71 | The SEP Report, CDC Smallpox Eradication Program | |||
| – SEP Report I(1) | 1967 Jun | CDC #21203 | ||
| – SEP Report I(2) | 1967 Sep | CDC #21204 | ||
| – SEP Report I(3) | 1967 Nov | CDC #21205 | ||
| – SEP Report II(3) | 1968 Jul | CDC #21206 | ||
| – SEP Report II(5) | 1968 Dec | CDC #21207 | ||
| – SEP Report III(1) | 1969 Feb | CDC #21208 | ||
| – SEP Report III(3) | 1969 Oct | CDC #21251 | ||
| – SEP Report IV(1). Proceedings (Part 1). Seminar on Smallpox Eradication and Measles Control in Western and Central Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, 13-20 May 1969 | 1970 Jan | CDC #21208 | ||
| – SEP Report IV(2). Proceedings (Part 2). Seminar on Smallpox Eradication and Measles Control in Western and Central Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, 13-20 May 1969 | 1970 Jan | CDC #21208 | ||
| – SEP Report IV(4) | 1970 Jul | |||
| – SEP Report V(1). Special report. Human infection with monkeypox virus: Liberia and Sierra Leone | 1971 Feb | |||
| 1969 | Smallpox eradication program—Directory 1969 | CDC | ||
