Smallpox vaccine Smallpox vaccine Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796. He followed up his observation that milkmaids who had previously caught cowpox did not later catch smallpox by showing that inoculated cowpox protected against inoculated smallpox. Dryvax is a freeze-dried calf lymph smallpox vaccine. It is the world's oldest smallpox vaccine, created in the late 19th century by American Home Products, a predecessor of Wyeth. By the 1940s, Wyeth was the leading US manufacturer of the vaccine and the only manufacturer by the 1960s. After world health authorities declared smallpox had been
1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak The 1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak was the last major outbreak of smallpox in Europe. It was centred in Kosovo and Belgrade (both then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). A Muslim pilgrim had contracted the smallpox virus in the Middle East. Upon returning to his home in Kosovo, he started the epidemic in which 175 people were infected, 35 of whom died. The epidemic was efficiently contained by enforced quarantine and mass vaccination. The 1982 film "Variola Vera" is based on the event. By 1972, vaccination for smallpox had long been widely available and