30 years of freedom from smallpox
The World Health Organisation (WHO) commemorated 30 years of freedom from smallpox recently. Health professionals who actively participated in the campaign to eradicate smallpox from the South-East Asia Region gathered in New Delhi to mark the event. Also present at the meeting were Dr William Foege, former Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Atlanta who played a key role in developing the strategy which was used for smallpox eradication, and Ms Rahima Begum, a Bangladeshi woman who was the last case of smallpox in the South-East Asia Region. The strategy to eradicate smallpox employed by the South-East Asia Region was based on some of the basic principles of public health: enhanced surveillance, case finding, isolation and creating awareness regarding vaccination. Thirty years later, the smallpox eradication programme continues to inspire public health campaigns. Bangladesh reported the last case from the Region and the whole of Asia on 16 October 1975. The eradication of the disease from Bangladesh was also the result of the active mobilisation, organisation and diligent efforts of thousands of health workers, officials and experts from all levels of the health system. The global eradication of smallpox was certified, based on intensified verification activities in countries, by a commission of eminent scientists in December 1979 and subsequently endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 1980.
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