In an article in today s New York Times Science Times, Dr. Lawrence K. Altman reminds readers that, to this day, smallpox is still the only disease to have been eradicated from the planet. This, however, was no small feat, and required international cooperation among an array of public health organizations.
Dr. Altman attributes the success of the smallpox vaccine to the lessons learned from the first few years of the measles vaccine s expanded use in the 1960s. Thanks in part to ACSH s former trustee Dr. D.A. Henderson, a professor of public health and medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and ACSH scientific advisor Dr. William H. Foege, the smallpox vaccine was added to the measles program in West Africa during the 1970s, which resulted in the eventual eradication of the disease although measles remains a serious problem.
If you happen to be interested in a comprehensive look at this history, Dr. Foege, now a senior executive at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has written an interesting book describing this campaign: House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox.