Did you know?
Smallpox is the only human disease to have been fully eliminated by vaccination
Smallpox, which was eradicated in 1979, was widespread in the 1800s and killed 30 percent of first-time victims.
Smallpox, eradicated after a global vaccination campaign, remains the only human disease to have been fully eliminated by vaccination.
Samples of the virus remain under lock and key however, and vaccination of the U.S. military and some key health and emergency workers has been resumed because of fears the virus could be used as a biological weapon.