Smallpox—Target Zero is a research archive documenting the global eradication of smallpox. It is dedicated to the many thousands who contributed to the effort.
I believe that the important, longer-term contribution of smallpox eradication ... was its demonstration of how much could be accomplished with how little in the control of infectious diseases through community-wide vaccination programs.
DA Henderson, Smallpox—the Death of a Disease, p 304)
Smallpox eradication posed major management and logistical challenges. A small WHO headquarters team coordinated regional offices, national ministries, 750 international workers, and hundreds of thousands of health staff across 50 countries. Poor infrastructure, natural disasters, civil war, and refugee crises complicated efforts. Funding and vaccine shortages were ongoing concerns, while communication relied depended largely on meetings, cables, and unreliable mail.
Nonetheless, in just over 10 years, some 10 million annual smallpox cases, with 2 million deaths, were reduced to zero. A person-to-person chain of transmission that had endured for thousands of years was broken.
Dr. DA Henderson (1928-2016)
Chief, WHO Smallpox Eradication Programme, 1967-76
