Smallpox dates back to the body of Pharaoh Ramses V, who died more than 3000 years ago. He had telltale pockmarks on his mummified skin. There have been horrendous repetitive epidemics over the centuries, for example an epidemic raged in the Roman Empire for 15 years killing an estimated 3 to 7 million people. WHO officially declared the world free of smallpox in 1980. The pictures below show vaccination in progress – and an adult who survived smallpox which left deep pitted scars.
One of the most challenging countries was Afghanistan. There were unmapped remote villages, mistrust of foreigners, and where male health workers could not reach women and children. The answer was to recruit and train female vaccinators.
A few years ago, I met with several Peace Corps volunteers who were personally involved in the elimination of smallpox. One said, “My grasp of the Farsi language was shaky at best in the first days in-country, but there was no mistaking the meaning of the women of a small Turkomen village in northern Afghanistan as they pointed to empty cradles and cried…Their questions for us: ‘Why didn’t you come sooner?’ I could feel a crack in my heart.”
The Peace Corps women often had to negotiate with the village Khan but when the local women found out they were there for them and their children, the PCV’s were welcomed. One by one and village after village, the efforts of these vaccinators helped to produce the modern medical miracle – the elimination of smallpox from the planet!
For the government report click here.