When was small pox officially eradicated?

Question

Please put me out of my misery, it is annoying me. I believe it to have been in the sixties, am i right!

Answer 1

Smallpox outbreaks have occurred from time to time for thousands of years, but the disease is now eradicated after a successful worldwide vaccination program. The last case of smallpox in the United States was in 1949. The last naturally occurring case in the world was in Somalia in 1977. After the disease was eliminated from the world, routine vaccination against smallpox among the general public was stopped because it was no longer necessary for prevention.

Answer 2

Small pox is a highly contagious human disease caused by the virus variola. There are two strains of the virus: variola major, which is more severe (20-40% mortality rate) and variola minor (1% mortality rate). Since a virus causes the disease, there is no treatment, but a vaccine can protect against the disease. The earliest forms of vaccination was innoculation, which entailed taking fluid from the lesions of an infected person and injected the fluid into an unifected person. This was shown to be effective because when the innoculated people were later exposed to the samllpox virus their symptoms were mild compared to an uninnoculted person.Edward Jenner, a physician is well known for innoculating children who were later exposed to the virus and they did not get infected. He is referred to as the father of smallpox vaccination.

The disease is about three thousand years old, and was first discovered in China, and then India. It first appeared in Europe in the 6th century, and it was the most serious infection in the 16th and 17th centuries. Small pox was introduced to the Americas by Europeans and exposure to the disease killed about 3.5 million native inhabitants. Mortality rates varied regionally with Europe having a 10% mortality rate and 90% in America. The low mortality in Europe may have been a result of high resistance that occurred after exposure to the disease. The disease has killed about 100 million people and twice the number have been scarred or blinded.

The disease can be prevented by inoculation (vaccination). It is not used for routine vaccination since smallpox was eradicated worldwide in the late 1970's . The vaccines are routinely given to people who work with the live vaccines in the Centers for Disease Control, the only place where the smallpox virus is found. A person is vaccinated with attenuated smallpox (the vaccine contains weakened live microorganisms). The attenuated microorganisms stimulate a long lasting immunity by producing antigens to which the body becomes sensitized. This may result to a trivial infection and later exposure to the virus does not affect the vaccinated person. Vaccination within 4 days of exposure to the may be effective; it lessens the severity of the disease. Treatment after exposure is not effective against the disease. It is possible to contract an infection when the vesicles burst. The challenge is to keep the wound clean to avoid infection since infection may lead to death.

Smallpox was declared eradicated worlwide in 1980 by the World Health Organization (WHO) but with the wake of terrorism in the recent past, there is fear about small pox being used as a weapon. Since it spreads easily and without vaccinations large numbers of people would die, it is a weapon of choice for bioterrorists. Although there is speculation that it may be used as a bioweapon, it is indiscrimanate, and would kill large numbers of people that may not have been targets of the terrorism. The only known sources of the small pox virus is CDC in Atlanta, and Kolsovo, Russia, and it would be hard to get access to the virus.

Answer 3

i think you find it is not it one of man kinds fears that it comes back it one of mother natures deadliest only two countries world have a sample USA and Russia they have it to try to find a curer