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A Global Appraisal

Paul F. Wehrle, MD

JAMA. 1978;240(18):1977-1979.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

OF ALL communicable diseases limited to man, few have the attainable prospect of complete and permanent eradication. Of those few, smallpox has provoked the greatest interest. In 1801, Jenner¹ entertained the prospect of eradication soon after demonstrating the efficacy of vaccination in protecting the susceptible individual. Despite the early and continuing interest in this possibility and the control or even successful eradication in some individual countries, the first systematic international program was proposed in 1949 by Soper,² then director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau. Failure of the individual country efforts and increasing incidence of disease in the Americas facilitated the adoption and implementation of a resolution to approve such a program. Budgetary provision was made in 1950 by the 13th Pan American Sanitary Conference.^3,4

The lessons learned in this and in the subsequent global program are important in understanding the success in the imminent total global eradication . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center, Los Angeles.

Footnotes
Read before the Consultation on World-Wide Certification of Smallpox Eradication, Geneva, Oct 11-13, 1977.

Reprint requests to Department of Pediatrics, 1129 N State St, Los Angeles, CA 90033 (Dr Wehrle).

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