Witness History
Witness History
The last smallpox outbreak
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February 27, 2020
10 minutes
Available for over a year
Thousands of people died in India during the world's last major smallpox epidemic. Individual cases had to be tracked down and quarantined to stop the deadly disease spreading. Ashley Byrne spoke to Dr Mahendra Dutta and Dr Larry Brilliant who took part in the battle to eradicate smallpox once and for all.
Photo: Smallpox lesions on the human body. 1973. Credit: Getty Images.