Thread by @IWTKQuiz

Today is exactly 40 years since the World Health Organization @WHO certified the global eradication of smallpox.

Thread with fascinating Smallpox facts and stories 👇🏾

The first ever alleged recorded traces of smallpox date back to 1145 BC (frikking 2900 years ago). Scary!

Facial lesions caused due to the disease were observed on the mummified remains of Egyptian Pharoah Ramases V.

Smallpox spread rapidly with an increase in human migration and trade.

3 out of every 10 humans infected by smallpox died. Those who survived were scarred for life.

(Don't look for images related to the disease, you have been warned).

Japan had an epidemic in 735 - 737 AD which killed a third of its population.

People believed the disease was caused due to devils and that the devils were afraid of red colour and of dogs.

Here's a smallpox devil being defeated by the Samurai Minamoto no Tametomo

Pertinent digression - The painting you see is one of 36 drawings made by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi of the Yokai (ghosts, spirits).

His art work is legendary - check it out!

Smallpox caused widespread fear and was considered supernatural.

In India if you've seen temples dedicated to Shitala (or Sitala) Devi, she's the Goddess who cures diseases related to poxes, sores and pustules.

Shitala (one who cools) Devi is a reincarnation of Goddess Durga. She sits on a donkey, holds a broom and a vessel full of medicinal water to cure diseases.

My aunt stayed in Mahim near the Sitala Devi Mandir and two decades later, I learnt the origin story of the temple.

The Crusades brought the disease to mainland Europe from the Middle East.

From Europe, smallpox moving across the globe. This was fuelled by Europe's imperialist expansion plans.

Portuguese expeditions sailed to the west coast of Africa and formed new trade routes with eastern parts of the continent.

Smallpox had arrived in Africa and would stay on until 1977.

In addition to praying, human beings tried a few nifty tricks to cure themselves of smallpox.

This led to the invention of a method known as variolation.

Variolation involved grinding up dried scabs from a smallpox patient and inhaling them (Chinese method) or scratching them into the arm of an uninfected person (Indian method).

Here's a container from Ethiopia used to keep ground flakes of smallpox scabs.

People those days thought inhaling scabs or rubbing it into their skin was far better than getting scarred and dying.

Typing that sentence made me shudder. I'm glad we've come so far along in the field of medicine.

Smallpox caused devastation and high fatality in world populations that hadn't experienced the disease.

Deaths due to smallpox weakened the Aztecs and the Incas, making it easier for the Spanish conquistadors to wreak havoc in Central and South America.

The English settlements in the 17th century on the East Coast of North America brought the disease over.

It caused the death of more than 80% of the native American population.

In the southern hemisphere, smallpox was brought over twice to Australia and was the leading cause of death among the aboriginal people for nearly a hundred years starting from the late 1700s.

In 1796, however humanity made a breakthrough.

Dr.Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine for smallpox. However, it wasn't until almost 200 years later that we finally said bye to this disease.

That was the first part of the smallpox saga from its origin to when Edward Jenner discovered the vaccination for the disease.

We all went through a lot as a species in the subsequent years.

After his son died of smallpox in 1803, King Charles IV of Spain issued a royal order to provide the vaccine to all Spanish colonies across the globe to eradicate the disease.

These ship journeys lasted several months and it was tough to preserve the cowpox virus on the journey

22 orphans aged 3 to 9 never infected by smallpox or cowpox were brought along on the journey and vaccinated in a living chain.

Two children were vaccinated just before departure and when cowpox appeared on their arms two more children were vaccinated and so on.

This disturbing way of keeping the vaccine alive was not unique only to Spain.

The British did something similar to keep the cowpox vaccine alive by using lower caste Indian orphans on long journeys.

Did you know?

You had a better chance of getting a job if you had smallpox scars in the 18th century. This was because the scars showed that you already had the disease and could not pass it on to your employers.

In 1959 the @WHO decided enough is enough and decided to eradicate smallpox. Lack of funds, people and commitment phobia from countries resulted in the disease still being active in 1966.

The Intensified Eradication Program began in 1967. Laboratories in countries where smallpox occurred regularly produced higher quality freeze-dried vaccine.

This also led to some first for humanity - surveillance to detect and investigate cases and mass vaccination campaigns.

Smallpox had already been eliminated in North America (1952) and Europe (1953). With steady progress by 1971 smallpox was eradicated from South America, followed by Asia (1975) and finally Africa (1977) leading to the announcement 40 years ago.

Rahima Banu, a three-year-old girl from Bangladesh, was the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was isolated at home with house guards posted 24 hours a day until she was rid of the disease.

A house-to-house vaccination campaign within a 1.5 mile radius of her home began immediately, and every house, public meeting area, school, and healer nearby was visited by a member of the Smallpox Eradication Program. A reward was also offered to anyone for reporting a case!

In 2002, humans realized (in a rare instance where we stopped having megalomania as a species) that we did not have the right to wipe smallpox way from the face of evolution, so there is just a tiny amount left in labs in the US and in Russia.

Here's a fascinating chart that shows how smallpox was eradicated country by country across the globe.

Let us applaud all those amazing people who got together to save humanity from one of the deadliest pandemics ever known (though your point of view would be diametrically opposite if you were the smallpox virus).