The Big Red Book: Smallpox and its Eradication

Frank Fenner, D.A. Henderson, Isao Arita, Zdeněk Ježek, Ivan D. Ladnyi
World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, 1988

WHO abstract: "... Authored by experts personally involved in the eradication campaign, the book gives posterity a minutely detailed account of both how the disease once reigned and what was necessary, step by step and country by country, to eliminate the ancient scourge once and for all. Virtually everything ever known about the disease, and everything that happened during the global eradication campaign, has been collected and preserved in this richly illustrated account..."

Note: The complete volume can be accessed at WHO (54.8 MB) or, with links added to to all tables of contents, here (83 MB). Individual chapters (with table-of-contents links) may be accessed below.

Supplementary Content

Addendum I. List of Tables
Addendum II. List of Plates
Addendum III. References a) by author; b) by WHO Series No.

Introductory pages — Title Pages, Table of Contents (linked), Foreword, Authors' Preface, Acknowledgments, Reviewers

Chapters 1-4. Features of smallpox and the variola and vaccinia viruses

Chapter 1 (4.5 MB) — Clinical features of smallpox
Chapter 2 (3.1 MB) — Variola virus and other orthopoxviruses.
Chapter 3 (2.8 MB) — Pathogenesis, pathology, and immunology of variola virus (smallpox) and vaccinia virus (source of smallpox vaccine)
Chapter 4 (2.2 MB) — Epidemiology of smallpox

Chapters 5-8. History of smallpox and its control

Chapter 5 (2.3 MB) — History of smallpox and its spread around the world through the end of the 19th century
Chapter 6 (2.1 MB) — Early efforts at smallpox control: Variolation, vaccination, and isolation and quarantine
Chapter 7 (2.2 MB) — Developments in vaccination and control, 1900-1966
Chapter 8 (2.1 MB) — Incidence and control of smallpox, 1900-1958

Chapters 9-11. The global smallpox eradication programme

Chapter 9 (3.1 MB) — Development of a global smallpox eradication programme, 1958-1966
Chapter 10 (8.1 MB) — The Intensified Smallpox Eradication Programme, 1967-1980 (includes annual world maps, graphs, and summary)
Chapter 11 (2.9 MB) — Smallpox vaccine and vaccination in the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Programme

Chapters 12-23. Programme operations by area or country

Chapter 12 (1.7 MB) — South America
Chapter 13 (1.6 MB) — Indonesia
Chapter 14 (2.8 MB) — Afghanistan and Pakistan
Chapter 15 (5.2 MB) — India and the Himalayan Area
Chapter 16 (2.3 MB) — Bangladesh
Chapter 17 (3.6 MB) — Western and Central Africa
Chapter 18 (2.0 MB) — Zaire and Sudan
Chapter 19 (1.4 MB) — Eastern Africa: Kenya, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi
Chapter 20 (1.6 MB) — Southern Africa
Chapter 21 (2.5 MB) — Ethiopia, Yemen, and Democratic Yemen
Chapter 22 (1.9 MB) — Somalia and Djibouti
Chapter 23 (1.8 MB) — Smallpox in non-endemic countries: Importations and outbreaks, 1959-1978

Chapters 24-27. The process of certification of eradication

Chapter 24 (2.4 MB) — Certification of eradication: Concepts, strategy and tactics
Chapter 25 (2.3 MB) — Certification by International Commissions, 1973-1977
Chapter 26 (1.7 MB) — Certification of 29 countries of Africa and Asia, 1978-1979
Chapter 27 (2.1 MB) — Completion of global certification: The Horn of Africa and China

Chapters 28-31. Considerations after the eradication of smallpox

Chapter 28 (1.3 MB) — Post-eradication operations: Implementation of the 19 recommendations of the Global Commission
Chapter 29 (2.0 MB) — Human monkeypox and other poxvirus infections of man
Chapter 30 (1.3 MB) — Potential sources for a return of smallpox
Chapter 31 (2.2 MB) — Lessons and benefits: Principles and lessons, costs and benefits, implications for the future