Defeating Smallpox: Pitt Professor Who Led Effort to Wipe Out Disease Marks 30th Anniversary of Eradication With Book Launch at Pitt

PITTSBURGH-In 1967, D.A. Henderson launched a decade-long World Health Organization (WHO) endeavor to eradicate smallpox, an effort that involved up to 150,000 workers in 70 nations tracking one of humankind's deadliest diseases through countries ravaged by flood, famine, and war. In 1979, two years after the end of that campaign, the virus that had killed many millions-commoners and kings alike since at least the time of the pharaohs-was officially declared the first infectious human disease to be eradicated.

The University of Pittsburgh will commemorate the 30th anniversary of smallpox's elimination and honor Henderson-now a distinguished scholar in UPMC's Center for Biosecurity and a Pitt professor of public health and medicine-with an event to launch his upcoming book, "Smallpox-The Death of a Disease: The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer" (Prometheus). The event will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on June 4 in the J. W. Connolly Ballroom, Alumni Hall, 4227 Fifth Ave., Oakland. Pitt's Center for Global Health, which was established on May 6, 2009, to promote multidisciplinary international health research and scholarship, is a sponsor of the book launch.

During the event, which is free and open to the public, Henderson will present an overview of his book and relate his experience to tactics for modern disease preparedness, particularly the case of influenza H1N1. Tommy Thompson, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in the President George W. Bush administration, who named Henderson as the inaugural director of the national Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness in 2001, also will speak. These discussions will take place against the backdrop of Pitt's past and continuing contributions to public health, from the development of the polio vaccine and the first successful human organ transplant to Pitt's Center for Global Health.

"The University of Pittsburgh is proud to claim connections to a number of global health giants," said Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. "Among them are Jonas Salk, Julius Youngner, and the other members of the Pitt team who developed the vaccine that won this country's war against polio; Thomas Parran, who served as the U.S. Surgeon General and worked passionately to establish the World Health Organization; John C. Cutler, who led landmark research that became the foundation for treating and containing sexually transmitted diseases worldwide; and D.A. Henderson, under whose leadership the World Health Organization oversaw what has been described as history's first-and, to date, only-vanquishing of an infectious disease, smallpox.

"We are very fortunate that Dr. Henderson chose Pitt's School of Medicine, its Graduate School of Public Health, and the UPMC Center for Biosecurity as his professional home. We also are delighted to celebrate his life of public health leadership and the eagerly anticipated publication of his story chronicling the demise of a deadly disease."

David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Polio: An American Story, said of the effort Henderson led, "There has been no greater medical-or humanitarian-miracle in modern times than the eradication of smallpox, history's deadliest infectious disease."

In 2002, Henderson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He also has received the National Medal of Science, the National Academy of Sciences' Public Welfare Medal, shared the Japan Prize with two colleagues, and was knighted by the King of Thailand in 2008.

"D.A.'s passion and commitment have transformed public health around the globe," said Donald S. Burke, associate vice chancellor for global health at the University of Pittsburgh and founder of the University's Center for Global Health."His decade-long struggle to defeat smallpox was a tremendous success. The program provided a model for international cooperation on health issues for the entire world."

When Henderson's work began, the highly contagious disease infected 10 million people and killed approximately 2 million each year. Even the powerful were not immune-Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V, Russian czar Peter II, and many other rulers died of smallpox. Famous survivors include Mozart, Beethoven, George Washington, and Josef Stalin. Washington, upon having his army plagued by smallpox during the American Revolution, remarked that his troops had "more to dread [from smallpox] than from the Sword of the Enemy."

In 1960, Henderson was put in charge of a federal program to prevent smallpox brought to the United States from abroad. The virus had not naturally occurred in the United States since 1949; the last cases in Allegheny County occurred in the 1940s, and the last death was recorded in 1943. Nonetheless, smallpox prevention was primarily defensive-quarantine officers would check travelers entering the country-and Henderson proposed attacking smallpox directly in the countries where it thrived.

He was tapped to lead the WHO Smallpox Eradication Unit in 1966. The team was determined to wipe out smallpox in 10 years despite a small budget and infections in scores of countries. Henderson and his colleagues pressed targeted nations for donations and cooperation. They recruited village doctors who couldn't read or write but could quickly diagnose smallpox. Team members in remote areas worked with little support or supervision. Henderson and his staff coped with civil wars, floods, impassable roads, and bureaucratic and cultural obstacles. They also worked through two smallpox outbreaks, the first in Yugoslavia in 1972 and then in India in 1974, the latter being among the worst smallpox outbreaks of the 20th Century. Finally, the last naturally occurring case of smallpox was reported in Somalia in 1977-only nine months over the team's 10 year goal.

Afterward, Henderson worked to contain smallpox cultured in labs around the world and helped develop preparedness programs for biological attacks using smallpox.

Photos available:

Photos from Henderson's book and more biographical information on Henderson are available on Pitt's Web site at www.pitt.edu/news2009/henderson.html

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5/27/09/tmw