Smallpox: last case

1 May 2010
Since smallpox was only transferred from person to person, the last infected person was the last link in the chain of transmission and represented the end of the disease in a country.

 

WHO
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"The last cases in countries considered endemic in 1967", exhibition display panel in Geneva for World Health Day, 1975.

WHO/John F. Wickett
Last case of smallpox
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Ali Maow Maalin, the last case of smallpox in Somalia, 1978.

WHO/Gary T. Presthus
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Prisca Elias, the last case of smallpox in Botswana, with a Surveillance Officer of Smallpox Eradication Programme, 1974.

WHO
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Kausar Parveen, the last case of smallpox in Pakistan, 1974.

WHO/Daniel J. M. Tarantola
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Rahima Banu, the last case of smallpox in Bangladesh, 1976.

WHO
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Amina Salat, the last case of smallpox in Ethiopia, 1976.

WHO
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Parchment signed in Geneva on 9 December 1979, by the members of the Global Commission for Certification of Smallpox Eradication.

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