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Donald "D.A." Henderson, a physician, educator, and epidemiologist who led the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate smallpox, died at 87 years of age on Aug. 19, 2016.
Smallpox was responsible for an estimated 300–500 million deaths during the 20th century. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year.
After vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1979. Smallpox is one of two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011.
Key to the eradication effort, given an insufficient supply of vaccine to inoculate everyone, was "surveillance-containment":
This technique entailed rapid reporting of cases from all health units and prompt vaccination of household members and close contacts of confirmed cases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Henderson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
2014 Interview: http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-special-henderson/ or use YouTube.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday August 26 2016, @02:18PM
Sometimes you just can't vaccinate everyone. But this is why "herd immunity" is a thing. If you trap the virus into areas and vaccinate the people in those areas, and monitor when it gets out, you can stop the disease.
Dr. Henderson and those working for this have saved countless lives. I think why people underestimate this is because of the mentality of, "I and nobody I have ever known had gotten Smallpox, therefore this isn't a big deal." Well without this effort, you would have known someone.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday August 26 2016, @03:08PM
It's not only about saving lives. It's also about saving some people from a life of crippling disease. Or being in a wheelchair for the rest of their life. Or maybe being in a hyperbaric breathing chamber for the rest of their lives.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 26 2016, @05:29PM
Prior to vaccination, Smallpox caused 1/3 of European cases of blindness (from the wiki link).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Friday August 26 2016, @05:27PM
> Dr. Henderson and those working for this have saved countless lives.
Apparently, about 2 000 000 per year.
Let's repeat that: Their work saved about 2 million lives per year .
Holy bleeping bleep.
If that's not a record, I'd like to know which other group also deserves a platinum statue, their names on every school, and a nice pat on the back.