smallpox

We Nailed Smallpox- Why Not Polio?

By |2017-02-10T09:50:54-07:00October 24th, 2012|Preparedness, Prevention|

Today is World Polio Day so I thought I’d throw together this post to give you an update on where we are in the global eradication effort.  2012 has been a good year so far- as the global public health system has made some real progress.  This year we’re down to only 3 countries with [...]

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AZ Smallpox Outbreak

By |2017-02-10T09:51:19-07:00February 6th, 2012|Prevention|

Smallpox broke out in southeast Arizona almost exactly 100 years ago last week (co-incident with the Statehood activities).  The first cases were in Tucson and Douglas with a few dozen cases and several deaths… and there were a few additional cases in Nogales and Globe.  Of course, all the cases were among folks that hadn’t been vaccinated.  [...]

Global Polio Eradication- The Ongoing Push

By |2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00December 30th, 2011|Prevention|

Public health efforts eradicated smallpox from the globe in the late 1970s.  The last naturally occurring case was in Somalia in 1977 (followed by a couple of lab accident cases in 1978).  Public health’s sites have been set on Polio eradication for the last couple of decades.  We got close a couple of times, but [...]

House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox

By |2017-02-10T09:51:22-07:00December 23rd, 2011|General|

Looking for a book to read over the holidays about one of public health’s biggest achievements?  You’ll enjoy a new book written by Dr. Bill Foege called House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox.  Dr. Foege was a key leader in the smallpox eradication effort.  He joined the CDC in 1962 in the Epidemic Intelligence Service [...]

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Who Is Ed Jenner?

By |2017-02-10T09:51:46-07:00May 17th, 2011|Preparedness, Prevention|

He’s a guy that may have saved more lives than any other single person in history. In the 1790's, he noticed that “milkmaids” seldom came down with smallpox.  He developed a theory that the blisters which “milkmaids” commonly had as part of their work (from a disease called cowpox) somehow protected them from smallpox. In [...]

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Global Polio Eradication Rounds the Bend

By |2017-02-10T09:51:53-07:00March 1st, 2011|Preparedness, Prevention|

Public health efforts eradicated smallpox from the globe in the late 1970s.  The last naturally occurring case was in Somalia in 1977 (followed by a couple of lab accident cases in 1978).  Public health set its sites on Polio next- with an expectation that it could be eradicated before the turn of the century.  A [...]

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Eat Well Be Well

By |2010-02-16T08:58:36-07:00February 16th, 2010|Prevention|

Throughout history, mankind’s future was largely determined by fate.  Infectious diseases like Diphtheria and Smallpox could wipe out an entire family in just a few days. People were vulnerable to outside threats ranging from a lack of clean drinking water to poor sanitation to gaps in environmental infrastructure that led to a host of infectious [...]

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