smallpox eradication
Smallpox is easily considered the deadliest disease in human history. Experts believe smallpox began as an animal virus in East Africa, which then mutated and attacked humans at around 40,000-30,000 BC. Throughout its existence, smallpox has killed nearly 500 million people, more than double the amount of the second deadliest disease, measles. Smallpox killed nearly one third of all people it infected, and it is believed that it killed nearly 90% of the New World, through its frequent use as a weapon. Smallpox attacked humans from all walks of life, from the rich elite to the poor peasantry. Through extensive vaccination campaigns, smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980.
This website in particular is focused on smallpox in London, England with use of various maps, images and other links.
This website in particular is focused on smallpox in London, England with use of various maps, images and other links.
"Future nations will know by history only that the loathsome smallpox has existed and by you has been extirpated."
--Thomas Jefferson, 1806, in a letter to Edward Jenner