Almost two centuries after Jenner hoped that vaccination could annihilate smallpox, the 33rd World Health Assembly declared the world free of this disease on May 8, 1980. Many people consider smallpox eradication to be the biggest achievement in international public health.
How many years did it take to eradicate smallpox?
Smallpox remains the only human disease to be eradicated globally, and it took 184 years between the development of the first-ever vaccine in 1796 to its eradication in 1980.
How was smallpox eradicated 1980?
The last known naturally occurring case of smallpox was diagnosed on Oct. 26, 1977, in Merka, Somalia, according to the CDC. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared smallpox eradicated in 1980. "It was eradicated solely through vaccination.
