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
1974 smallpox epidemic in India 1974 smallpox epidemic in India The 1974 smallpox epidemic of India was one of the worst smallpox epidemics of 20th century. Over 15,000 people contracted and died from smallpox between January and May 1974. Most of the deaths occurred in the Indian states of Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. There were thousands who survived but were disfigured or blinded. India reported 61,482 cases of smallpox to World Health Organization (WHO) in these five months. India had over 86% of the world's smallpox cases in 1974, primarily due to this epidemic. By January 1975, an operation was started aimed at containing