Last natural smallpox case (Merca, 1977)
Último caso natural de viruela (Merca, 1977)
- Date
- 26 de octubre de 1977 · confidence high
- Place
- Merca, Lower Shabelle, Somalia
- Credited to
- Ali Maow Maalin (patient); WHO Smallpox Eradication Programme
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
A Somali hospital cook contracted variola minor and recovered. It was the last case of natural transmission in history, and its confirmation led to the declaration of eradication in 1980.
It was variola minor. In 1978 a medical photographer in Birmingham died of a lab-acquired case, the last of the disease.
What it led to
- global certification of smallpox eradication (WHA, 1980)
- a model of surveillance and outbreak containment
- the first and so far only eradication of a human disease