With a New Introduction by Phillip K. Peterson M.D. author of Microbes The LifeChanging Story of GermsFor more than 3000 years hundreds of millions of people have died or been left permanently scarred or blind by the relentless incurable disease called smallpox. In 1967 Dr. D.A. Henderson became director of a worldwide campaign to eliminate this disease from the face of the earth. This spellbinding book is Dr. Hendersonamp39s personal story of how he led the World Health Organizationamp39s campaign to eradicate smallpoxampmdashthe only disease in history to have been deliberately eliminated. Some have called this feat ampquotthe greatest scientific and humanitarian achievement of the past century.ampquot This latest edition features a new introduction by Phillip K. Peterson M.D. in which the infectious diseases expert contends that Dr. Hendersonamprsquos campaign against smallpox may provide insights towards the fight against COVID19 and future global pandemics. In a lively engrossing narrative Dr. Henderson makes it clear that the gargantuan international effort involved more than straightforward mass vaccination. He and his staff had to cope with civil wars floods impassable roads and refugees as well as formidable bureaucratic and cultural obstacles shortages of local health personnel and meager budgets. Countries across the world joined in the effort the United States and the Soviet Union worked together through the darkest cold war days and professionals from more than 70 nations served as WHO field staff. On October 26 1976 the last case of smallpox occurred. The disease that annually had killed two million people or more had been vanquishedampndashand in just over ten years. The story did not end there. Dr. Henderson recounts in vivid detail the continuing struggle over whether to destroy the remaining virus in the two laboratories still that held it. Then came the startling discovery that the Soviet Union had been experimenting with smallpox virus as a biol