Timeline of smallpox eradication

Table V. Timeline of smallpox eradication 1802 onwards             Smallpox vaccination in India being started 1958                           WHA declares the target of small pox eradication from the world 1962                                        National Smallpox Eradication programme launched with a target of successfully vaccinating entire population in next 3 years 1962-1967                  Mass vaccination campaigns conducted; coverage remained low 1968-1972                  Revision of strategy for India; focus on surveillance; epidemiologic investigation and outbreak containment 1969                           Bifurcated needle became available for vaccination 1971                           New more stable, efficacious, freeze dried vaccine became available 1973-1975                  Intensive search campaigns for smallpox 17 May 1975               Last indigenous smallpox case reported from Pachera village in Katihar district of Bihar, India 24 May 1975             Last smallpox case reported from India was imported from Sylhet district of Bangladesh. The case was reported from Karimganj Railway station in Cachar district of Assam, India 1975-1977                 ‘Operation smallpox Zero’ was run in the country with intensified efforts for case search and containment and on-going vaccination 1977                                        India declared smallpox free Last case of smallpox from any part of the world reported in Somalia (October 1977) 1978                                        Last case of smallpox due to a laboratory outbreak in Birmingham, United Kingdom 9 December 1979       World certified smallpox free by Global Certification Committee 8 May 1980              World Health Assembly declared the world free from smallpox and the disease eradicated from the planet