Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
The other thing with smallpox is that it's much easier to spot and isolate when it becomes transmissible. You do not have asymptomatic smallpox (as far as I know).
So when they identified a case of Smallpox the WHO would take a break from their touring schedule and swoop into the area to do 'ring-vaccination' around the suspected case. Basically starving it of further carriers. Every time another case occurred they too would be isolated and people in that community vaccinated again until it had nowhere left to go. No more Smallpox.
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Yep, that's pretty much how the WHO worked. Smallpox eradication worked because of;
- No asymptomatic carriers
- People REALLY didn't want to get Smallpox to vaccination take up was close to 100% when needed
- There are no animal carriers and the virus dies quickly when not inside a person
- The vaccine was easy to administer (no injections)
- The virus is pretty stable genetically so no new exciting variants popped up over time
- A global effort was in place with vaccines being manufactured by local suppliers
Polio hopefully is going the same way for the same reasons. There were only 5 wild cases noted globally last year