History of Smallpox

Small is one of the deadliest diseases ever encountered by humans. It is also the only one which has been completely eradicated by vaccination. The history of Smallpox goes back to about 10,000 B.C., the era of agricultural development of North-Eastern Africa. It seems plausible for it to spread to India and other Asian countries by means of trade and interrelated economies. The earliest evidence of lesions similar to smallpox was found in the Egyptian mummies of people from 18th to 20th centuries. A few evidences of the disease have been mentioned in ancient Indian and China texts. Through various routes the disease spread to Europe and Roman Empires in first few centuries where it caused millions of deaths for its unknown nature. During the 18th century the disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year, including five reigning monarchs, and was responsible for a third of all blindness. Between 20-60% of all those who were infected and over 80% of infected children, died from the disease at that time. It was estimated that during 20th century the disease was responsible for 300-500 millions of deaths. In early times, it was known that the people who had survived the disease have never been infected by it in their entire life periods. Through some accidents it became clear that those who contracted the disease by break in skin, where smallpox matter was inserted, received a less severe reaction than those who contracted it naturally. This in principle originated the idea of purposefully infecting people with matter from smallpox scabs. The practice is known as Variolation and was first practiced in China in 10th century. The practice was improved by years of research of Jenner, where he executed several Vaccinations as an alternate to conventional and hectic variolations. In 50s it was found that fifty millions cases of the disease occurred in world each year. In year 1967, the World Health Organization found that 15 million people contracted the disease, out of which 2 millions died that year. As a result of huge number of deaths accompanied by the disease, vaccination campaigns were organized throughout 19th and 20th centuries, which proved to be quite successful resulting into complete eradication of the disease in December 1979. Until today, smallpox is the only human infectious disease which has been completely eradicated from the face of world.