On my left arm is a large scar – about the size of a silver dollar (for those who remember when dollars were also coins). It’s what remains of my smallpox vaccination.

Smallpox was eradicated in 1977. This amazing, global public health achievement isn’t just a page in a history book or an ...

Despite the similar names, chickenpox and smallpox are very different diseases. Learn how to tell them apart.

On May 8, 1980, forty-five years ago, the World Health Organization, a part of the United Nations, announced that officials had eradicated smallpox from the world’s population. The last case ...

The disease is thought to have existed since Egyptian times, and smallpox scars are allegedly visible on the mummified body of Pharaoh Rameses V, who died in 1157BC.

I have a clear memory of noticing a distinct scar on my mother’s arm when I was a child. It sits high up, close to her shoulder, taking the appearance of what looks like a ... The post Smallpox ...

If you have a permanent scar from the original smallpox vaccine, learn more about its history, why you have it, and if the vaccine still protects you.

The series finale of “Epidemic: Eradicating Smallpox” is a visit to the home of Rahima Banu, the last person with a documented case of naturally occurring variola major smallpox. When the virus was ...

That was the death toll before smallpox vaccination became widespread: 1 in 3. And if you did survive, the scars left behind might haunt you for the rest of your life.

Folks of a certain vintage have the tell-tale crater on their upper arms: The discolored, shallow scars from the smallpox vaccine. This ceased being a rite of passage in 1972, when the disease was ...

Can Americans — baby boomers, mostly — relax if they were vaccinated against smallpox as kids? Maybe, but we are health scientists who have been observing the epidemiology of monkeypox for ...