By: Don Driggers
Smallpox is a virus that used to cause one of the most feared illnesses in history. A global World Health Organization vaccination program from the mid-1960s to 1980 successfully eradicated smallpox. The last naturally occurring case of the disease appeared in 1977 in Somalia. Smallpox virus is maintained in high-security government laboratories in the United States and Russia. Though less contagious than influenza and chickenpox, single cases introduced into a population could result in large epidemics, NYC Health department explained.
On April 4, 1947, NYC Mayor William O’Dwyer and Commissioner of Health Israel Weinstein informed the public about the smallpox outbreak and announced plans to vaccinate everybody in the city.[4] At the time, the New York City Health Department had 250,000 individual doses of vaccine and 400,000 doses in bulk. O’Dwyer called an emergency meeting with the heads of the seven American pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine production and asked them for a commitment to provide 6 million doses of vaccine. The pharmaceutical companies accomplished the task by putting the vaccine into round-the-clock production. Additional vaccine doses were obtained from the Army and Navy.
Free vaccine clinics were established throughout the city, and doses were given to private physicians for administration. During the first week, surprisingly little public attention was captured. The story hit page 1 on April 13 after a second person died from the disease, Kent Sepkowitz recalled.
Mayor William O’Dwyer urged all 7.8 million New York residents to receive the vaccine, and he rolled up his sleeve and was vaccinated by Dr. Weinstein. The city swiftly swung into full crisis mode. Police, fire, and health departments, and hospitals were mobilized to provide additional space for the effort.
Vaccine side effects, which dominate coverage of today’s vaccination program, were seldom discussed in 1947. Dr. Weinstein assured residents, “Vaccination is painless. The skin is not even broken by the needle. Sometimes a soreness develops in the armpit. If the arm becomes very sore, apply an icebag”, Sepkowitz researched from the original NY Times reports.
Thanks to a vaccine developed in the late 1700s and refined in the decades that followed, smallpox outbreaks had generally been contained.
In 1980, the World Health Organization officially declared smallpox eradicated.
The smallpox vaccine is a live virus vaccine that helps the body protects itself against the smallpox virus. It contains vaccinia virus, which is a different virus than the smallpox virus. The vaccine does not contain the smallpox virus and cannot cause smallpox.
