On this day in 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, a Somali cook and health worker was the last person in the world known to have been infected with naturally occurring smallpox. Smallpox was declared to have been eradicated globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) two years later. This amazing accomplishment was made possible by vaccination.
Before the successful worldwide vaccination campaign, smallpox was a feared and deadly disease. During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 250–500 million deaths. In the early 1950s, an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year. As recently as 1967, the World Health Organization estimated that 15 million people contracted the disease and that two million died in that year. Thanks to this successful public health campaign for vaccination and the eradication of the disease, vaccination for smallpox is no longer necessary.
Photograph by Allan Warner of two boys who came in contact with smallpox, 1901. The one on the right was vaccinated in infancy, the other was not vaccinated.
Remembering the oil embargo and gas lines of the ’70s.
a little epistemology for y’all
Chocolate-coated!
Here’s Little Feat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z-GwdaKrn8
