Thread by @WHO

This month, 40 years ago, #smallpox was confirmed to have been eradicated.
It was one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, and is still the only human disease to have been eradicated bit.ly/2H9bpKM

#VaccinesWork

@WHOSEARO @WHO_Europe @WHOAFRO @pahowho @WHOEMRO @WHOWPRO The eradication of #smallpox from the world was certified by the Global Commission, an independent panel of scientists drawn from 19 nations in December 1979 at WHO Headquarters, Geneva bit.ly/2H9bpKM

Five months later, in May 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly issued its official declaration on behalf of all WHO Member States that ‘the world and all its peoples have won freedom from #smallpox’

#VaccinesWork💪🏽

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1205446813819518976

Before it was wiped out, #smallpox had plagued humanity for thousands of years, killing 300 million people in the 20th century alone bit.ly/2H9bpKM

@WHOSEARO @WHO_Europe @pahowho @WHOAFRO @WHOEMRO @WHOWPRO The last known natural case of #smallpox was in Somalia in 1977.
Since then, the only known cases were caused by a laboratory accident in 1978 in Birmingham, England, which killed one person and led to a limited outbreak bit.ly/2H9bpKM

@WHOSEARO @WHO_Europe @pahowho @WHOAFRO @WHOEMRO @WHOWPRO Ali Maow Maalin was the last person to be infected with naturally occurring #smallpox in the world.
Maalin used his own story to illustrate the importance of vaccination and became an important advocate for polio eradication in #Somalia bit.ly/2H9bpKM

@WHOSEARO @WHO_Europe @pahowho @WHOAFRO @WHOEMRO @WHOWPRO In 1796, an English physician Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who were infected with cowpox did not contract #smallpox. He then created the first known vaccine from cowpox and began to ‘vaccinate’ people to prevent smallpox