Smallpox eradication in Africa (1966-1980)
The World Health Organization launched the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Programme in 1966, deploying ring vaccination and surveillance strategies across Africa. The last natural case in Africa occurred in Somalia in 1977. In 1980, WHO declared smallpox eradicated globally — the first and still only human disease eliminated through vaccination.
Smallpox vaccination ceased worldwide, saving billions in annual vaccine costs and eliminating a disease that had killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone.
The campaign proved that systematic vaccination could eradicate a disease across an entire continent, creating the institutional template that the Measles Initiative would later follow.
The smallpox campaign demonstrated that Africa-wide disease elimination through vaccination was possible, and many of the same institutional partnerships and surveillance methods now underpin the measles effort.