The last person to catch smallpox naturally was a hospital cook in Somalia.

1977 · 1980 · apart: 3 years

Ali Maow Maalin recovered in 1977 and later worked on the polio vaccination campaign in Somalia himself.

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The event

• Smallpox declared eradicated1980 · Geneva. On 8 May 1980 the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated, the first human disease ever wiped out. The WHO's global vaccination drive had been proposed by the USSR in 1958; the last natural case was found in Somalia in 1977.

20th century

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