garden rakes
smallpox the death of a disease the inside story of eradicating a worldwide killer
for more than 3000 years hundreds of millions of people have died or been left permanently scarred or blind by the relentless incurable disease called smallpox . in 1967 dr. d.a. henderson became director of a worldwide campaign to eliminate this disease from the face of the earth . br this spellbinding book is dr. hendersons personal story of how he led the world health organizations campaign to eradicate smallpox the only disease in history to have been deliberately eliminated . some have called this feat the greatest scientific and humanitarian achievement of the past century . br in a lively engrossing narrative dr. henderson makes it clear that the gargantuan international effort involved more than straightforward mass vaccination . he and his staff had to cope with civil wars floods impassable roads and refugees as well as formidable bureaucratic and cultural obstacles shortages of local health personnel and meager budgets . countries across the world joined in the effort ; the united states and the soviet union worked together through the darkest cold war days ; and professionals from more than 70 nations served as who field staff . on october 26 1976 the last case of smallpox occurred . the disease that annually had killed two million people or more had been vanquished and in just over ten years . br the story did not end there . dr. henderson recounts in vivid detail the continuing struggle over whether to destroy the remaining virus in the two laboratories still that held it . then came the startling discovery that the soviet union had been experimenting with smallpox virus as a biological weapon and producing it in large quantities . the threat of its possible use by a rogue nation or a terrorist has had to be taken seriously and dr. henderson has been a central figure in plans for coping with it . br new methods for mass smallpox vaccination were so successful that he sought to expand the program of smallpox immunization to include polio measles whooping cough diphtheria and tetanus vaccines . that program now reaches more than four out of five children in the world and is eradicating poliomyelitis . br this unique book is to be treasured a personal and true story that proves that through cooperation and perseverance the most daunting of obstacles can be overcome .