Smallpox eradication and Brazil: an interview with Donald A. Henderson

Hochman, Gilberto; Palmer, Steven

doi:10.1590/s0104-59702010000300011

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Vaccinations against contagious and endemic diseases are not systematically conducted and vaccination campaigns start only when such diseases have escalated into widespread epidemics. With respect to smallpox, its eradication in Benin, as elsewhere, was the result of sustained efforts under the supervision of the World Health Organization and its committed staff, such as doctor Donald A. Henderson (Hochman, Palmer, 2010).…”

Section: Final Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease, religion and medicine: smallpox in nineteenth-century Benin

Soumonni

2012

Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos

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The essay examines, with special reference to smallpox, the perception and interpretation of disease in pre-colonial Dahomey, present-day Republic of Benin. Because disease is seen primarily as a punishment from the gods and not just as a medical problem or a bodily disorder, traditional cult priests play a leading role in making diagnoses and prescribing remedies, mostly based on medicinal plants. The prominence of Sakpata, god of smallpox, coupled with the influence of its priests is evaluated within the context of Dahomey's political history and the spread of the disease. This pivotal position was to constitute a challenge to the French colonial campaign to vaccinate against smallpox.

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Section: Final Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease, religion and medicine: smallpox in nineteenth-century Benin

Soumonni

2012

Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos

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“…Yet when the newly established eradication headquarters in WHO established a system for testing batches of vaccine produced in more than 40 different countries, it found < 10% of samples were acceptable [40] due to potency and heat stability issues [41]. The WHO engaged vaccine experts to write simple manuals of production that explained best available production methods, and the WHO consultants worked with laboratories to improve their production processes [42]. Local production of vaccine was set up at government-owned facilities or associated institutes in the largest population countries including Brazil, India, and Indonesia, since donations would otherwise have been insufficient [42].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The WHO engaged vaccine experts to write simple manuals of production that explained best available production methods, and the WHO consultants worked with laboratories to improve their production processes [42]. Local production of vaccine was set up at government-owned facilities or associated institutes in the largest population countries including Brazil, India, and Indonesia, since donations would otherwise have been insufficient [42]. Two high quality laboratories from the Netherlands and Canada were selected to serve as vaccine reference centres [39], and they performed batch testing to evaluate improvements.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox

Cohen

2019

Malar J

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Background Malaria elimination and eventual eradication will require internationally coordinated approaches; sustained engagement from politicians, communities, and funders; efficient organizational structures; innovation and new tools; and well-managed programmes. As governments and the global malaria community seek to achieve these goals, their efforts should be informed by the substantial past experiences of other disease elimination and eradication programmes, including that of the only successful eradication programme of a human pathogen to date: smallpox. Methods A review of smallpox literature was conducted to evaluate how the smallpox programme addressed seven challenges that will likely confront malaria eradication efforts, including fostering international support for the eradication undertaking, coordinating programmes and facilitating research across the world’s endemic countries, securing sufficient funding, building domestic support for malaria programmes nationally, ensuring strong community support, identifying the most effective programmatic strategies, and managing national elimination programmes efficiently. Results Review of 118 publications describing how smallpox programmes overcame these challenges suggests eradication may succeed as a collection of individual country programmes each deriving local solutions to local problems, yet with an important role for the World Health Organization and other international entities to facilitate and coordinate these efforts and encourage new innovations. Publications describing the smallpox experience suggest the importance of avoiding burdensome bureaucracy while employing flexible, problem-solving staff with both technical and operational backgrounds to overcome numerous unforeseen challenges. Smallpox’s hybrid strategy of leveraging basic health services while maintaining certain separate functions to ensure visibility, clear targets, and strong management, aligns with current malaria approaches. Smallpox eradication succeeded by employing data-driven strategies that targeted resources to the places where they were most needed rather than attempting to achieve mass coverage everywhere, a potentially useful lesson for malaria programmes seeking universal coverage with available tools. Finally, lessons from smallpox programmes suggest strong engagement with the private sector and affected communities can help increase the sustainability and reach of today’s malaria programmes. Conclusions It remains unclear whether malaria eradication is feasible, but neither was it clear whether smallpox eradication was feasible until it was achieved. To increase chances of success, malaria programmes should seek to strengthen programme management, measurement, and operations, while building flexible means of sharing experiences, tools, and financing internationally.

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Quando e como uma doença desaparece. A varíola e sua erradicação no Brasil, 1966/1973 / When and how a disease disappears. Smallpox and its eradication in Brazil, 1966/1973

Hochman¹

2021

RBS

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Este artigo aborda o programa de erradicação da varíola no Brasil (1966-1973), para analisar o fim de doenças e epidemias em contextos locais. O foco recai sobre os antecedentes de um marco específico e crucial desse processo: o anúncio oficial de seu desaparecimento em agosto de 1973 em pleno regime militar. O objetivo do artigo é compreender como as dimensões políticas, científicas e sanitárias se entrecruzaram na pouca repercussão de uma conquista da saúde pública que mobilizou recursos, governos, população e organizações internacionais. O artigo, baseado em fontes primárias e secundárias, está dividido em quatro partes. A primeira discute as questões gerais relativas ao fim de epidemias e desaparecimento de doenças em contextos locais. A segunda apresenta a dinâmica política e sanitária e as características da campanha de erradicação da varíola entre 1966 e 1980, em suas faces internacional e nacional. A terceira discute os desafios, as desconfianças e as incertezas que envolveram a determinação de que a varíola estava eliminada no Brasil do regime militar entre os anos de 1970 e 1973. Na conclusão, retoma-se a questão do término de epidemias e doenças em contextos históricos e nacionais à luz da erradicação da varíola.Palavras-chave: varíola, governo militar, saúde pública, doença, epidemias. ***This article discusses the smallpox eradication program in Brazil (1966-1973) to analyze the end of diseases and epidemics in local contexts. The focus is on the background of a specific and crucial milestone in this process: the official announcement of its disappearance in August 1973 in the midst of the military regime. The objective of the article is to understand how the political, scientific and health dimensions intertwined in the little repercussion of a public health achievement that mobilized resources, governments, populations, and international organizations. The article, based on primary and secondary sources, is divided into four parts. The first discusses general issues related to the end of epidemics and the disappearance of diseases in local contexts. The second presents the political and health dynamics, and the smallpox eradication campaign’s characteristics between 1966 and 1980, in its international and national aspects. The third discusses the challenges, suspicions, and uncertainties that involved the determination that smallpox was eliminated in Brazil, during the military regime, between 1970 and 1973. In the conclusion, ending epidemics and diseases in historical and national contexts is taken up in the light of the eradication of smallpox.Keywords: smallpox, military government, public health, diseases, epidemics.

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Smallpox eradication and Brazil: an interview with Donald A. Henderson

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Disease, religion and medicine: smallpox in nineteenth-century Benin

Disease, religion and medicine: smallpox in nineteenth-century Benin

“Remarkable solutions to impossible problems”: lessons for malaria from the eradication of smallpox

Quando e como uma doença desaparece. A varíola e sua erradicação no Brasil, 1966/1973 / When and how a disease disappears. Smallpox and its eradication in Brazil, 1966/1973

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