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100
(10,000 B.C.) Smallpox emerges
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Smallpox emerges in humans in agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa.
Symptons:
Flu-like fatigue, headache, body ache, and occasionally vomiting, high fever, mouth sores and blisters that spread the virus into the throat, a skin rash, and sometimes blindness. -
300
(1350 B.C) First Smallpox outbreak
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Occured during the Egyptian-Hittite War when Egyptian prisoners unwittingly spread smallpox to the Hittites. Smallpox is spread by contact with someone. -
350
(1157 B.C.) Ramses V dies of smallpox
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Ramses V death. He is believed to have died from smallpox due to lesions found on his face. He is one of the earliest known victims. -
450
(430 B.C.) Smallpox hits Athens
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In 430 B.C., the second year of the Peloponnesian War, smallpox hit Athens and killed more than 30,000 people, reducing the population by 20%. Athens was the only Greek city hit by the epidemic. -
Oct 1, 1200
Variolation was introduced in Egypt
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Link to InformationIt is believed that variolation was introduced in Egypt by Mameluke Turks. -
Oct 29, 1520
Smallpox strikes American Indians
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Smallpox was introduced to the Native Americans in the United States.They acquired them from the Europeans as they traded with them. In most American Indian Cultures, healing was a part of their religious ceremonies. When their ceremonies failed to cure the new European diseases, they turned to Christianity, because Christians seemed to not die from the disease. -
Smallpox emerges in America
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Settlement of the east coast of North America in 1633 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was accompanied by devastating outbreaks of smallpox among Native American populations and later among the native-born colonists. -
Variolation is introduced in England
Link to PictureLink to InformationAn Englishwoman, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was responsible for introducing variolation to England. She had her six-year-old son inoculated in Turkey, and then in the presence of Royal Society Members, had her daughter inoculated. Many people, including George Washington and his army in the War of Independence, used this method. -
Captain George Vancouver discovers deserted native villages
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On the northwest coastline of America, Captain George Vancouver noticed that there were many desterted American Indian villages. Many were over run with weeds and had human remains. -
A vaccination is created
Link to InformationEdward Jenner decided to test the theory that infectious material from a person with a milder similar disease could protect against a more severe disease. He put some pus from a cowpox pustule on small cuts made on the arm of an 8-year-old boy. Eight weeks later, he exposed the child to smallpox, and the boy had no reaction. Jenner developed the first vaccine, using cow serum containing the cowpox virus. He paved the way for global eradication of the disease. -
Mass Immunization campains against smallpox
Video
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The World Health Assembly decided to organize mass immunization campaigns against smallpox. -
The Global Smallpox Eradication Program is announced
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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the global smallpox eradication program. At the time, there were still an estimated 10 to 15 million cases of smallpox a year. -
The last reported, naturally occuring case
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There had been 465 million doses of the vaccine for smallpox dispersed in 27 countries after 10 years. The last reported naturally occuring case appeared in Somalia. On October 22, a 23-year-old male, Ali Maow Maalin, developed smallpox and survived. -
Two additional cases
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Two additional cases of smallpox occured in Birmingham, England, after the virus escaped from a laboratory. There has not been a case reported in more than 25 years. -
The first medical description of smallpox
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Rhazes provided the first medical description of smallpox, documenting that the illness was transmitted from person to person. His explination of why survivors of smallpox do not develope the disease twice is the first theory of acquired immunity.
