Smallpox Eradication: How Humanity Killed a 3,000-Year-Old Killer

Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in human history, killing an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone. Through a massive global vaccination campaign led by the World Health Organization, it became the first human disease ever to be completely eradicated — certified in 1980. This is the story of how science, persistence, and global cooperation achieved the impossible.