Variolation shortly after variolation began to outweigh the benefits of the procedure. From the 1760s, a number of individuals, including John Fewster, Peter Plett, Benjamin Jesty, and particularly Edward Jenner, were interested in the use of material from cowpox, an animal infection, to protect against smallpox. In 1796, Jenner vaccinated James Phipps, did more vaccinations in 1798, and was the first to publish evidence that cowpox protected against smallpox, was safer than variolation, and that his vaccine could be maintained by arm-to-arm transfer. The use of variolation soon began to decline as the smallpox vaccine became widely used and its benefits
1974 smallpox epidemic in India the last cases of smallpox, called "Target Zero", with the identification of the last smallpox patient in India occurring on May 24, 1975. By 1980, smallpox was certified as being eradicated from the world. Smallpox was eradicated due to the WHO's smallpox eradication program. This program was formally established in 1958, but because of logistics disagreements between the WHO and the Indian government, did not progress rapidly. Headway only began to take place in India after the reorganization of the WHO in the mid 1960s. Donald Henderson, who was a U.S. Public Health Services Officer stationed in New Delhi, said