A pox on smallpox

摘要

Smallpox is a severe viral disease that claimed hundreds of millions of lives during the course of history. A uniquely human affliction, it killed a third of its victims and left the survivors disfigured with pockmarks and sometimes blind. From 1966 to 1977, a global vaccination campaign under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO) eradicated smallpox from the planet in one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. Since then, the absence of the disease has saved an estimated 60 million lives. In a dark irony, however, eradication created a new vulnerability with respect to the potential use of the smallpox virus as a biological weapon.