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World Health Organization (WHO) commemorates the 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication – December 13, 2019

December 18, 2019

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World Health Organization (WHO) commemorates the 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication

 

Historic milestone underscores urgent need to invest in global health security and universal health coverage

 

13 December 2019

News release

Geneva, Switzerland

 

The World Health Organization commemorated the 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication today, recognizing the historic moment on 9 December 1979 when the end of smallpox was confirmed to have been eradicated. Five months later, in May 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly issued its official declaration that ‘the world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox’. ...

SEE more: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/13-12-2019-who-commemorates-the-40th-anniversary-of-smallpox-eradication

 

Note: The One Health concept/approach, recognized by WHO https://www.who.int/features/qa/one-health/en/, was also endorsed by the late Dr. D.A. Henderson:


D.A.Henderson, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine and Public Health, University of Pittsburgh. Resident Scholar, Center for Biosecurity, U. of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Service Professor. Dean Emeritus, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Pier IV Building, Suite 210, Baltimore,
Maryland 21202

April 22, 2007 Dr. D. A. Henderson, legendary leader of the worldwide smallpox eradication program.

I thank you for your email and congratulate you and your colleagues in promoting the "One Medicine" concept. It is an initiative that is long overdue but, at the same time, I don't personally identify dramatic solutions that are apt to change the landscape in the short term. I would note that when one has had the good fortune to have enjoyed the tutelage of Jim Steele during my tenure at CDC and periodically ever since, as a friend, the one medicine concept becomes well engrained. Indeed, when I came to Hopkins as Dean in 1977, I cast about to determine how we might link up with a veterinary school for research and educational purposes. Unfortunately, geography was simply too great a hurdle to overcome.

Bottom line: I would be more than happy to do whatever I could in support of your efforts.

 

 

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