The global eradication of smallpox. Final report of the Global Commission for the Certification of Smallpox Eradication.

On 8 May 1980, the World Health Organization officially announced that “smallpox eradication has been achieved throughout the world”. The upper cover of this report reproduces an electron micrograph of a specimen of variola virus taken from the last case of endemic smallpox in the world, 26 October 1977. This was the successful conclusion of worldwide vaccination efforts initiated by Jenner in 1798. See No. 5423.