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Smallpox is believed to have
appeared at the time of the first agricultural
settlements in the northeastern Africa, around
10,000 BC.
The term small pokes ( pocke
meaning sac ) was first used in England at the
end of the 15th century to distinguish the
illness from syphilis, which was then known as
great pockes.
60 lakh people were vaccinated in
New York in 1948 in just 2 weeks, following an
outbreak of smallpox.
Before 1967, there were 25 lakh
deaths a year due to small pox.
The last natural death due to
smallpox was in the case of Ali Maow Maalin, a
cook in Somalia, Africa in October 1977.
The last person to die of
Smallpox was a British Medical Photographer,
Janet Parker following a leak in the laboratory
in 1978.
On 9th December 1979 the World
Health Organisation declared small pox as
officially eradicated, the world over.
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