The History of Smallpox

On December 9, 1979, members of the Global Commission for Certification of Smallpox Eradication certified that smallpox had been eradicated. The disease was fatal for about three in every 10 people who contracted it. In the 1950s, there were around 50 million cases of the disease every year. By the 20th century, the smallpox vaccine had become widely available.