Chemical & Biological Weapons Resource Page

View other Books by CNS Staff. Scourge cover

Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox

By Dr. Jonathan B. Tucker
Published by Atlantic Monthly Press, September 2001

Content available:

Order Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com.

Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, and left survivors disfigured for life. In this riveting, often terrifying look at the history of smallpox, Jonathan B. Tucker tells the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it worldwide, and the looming dangers it still poses today.

Over the centuries, the smallpox virus afflicted rich and poor, royalty and commoners, and repeatedly altered the course of human history. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquistadors brought smallpox to the New World where it spread like wildfire among the indigenous populations, enabling the Spanish to conquer the Aztecs and Incas. In the eighteenth century, smallpox was so widespread in Europe that most people either became immune or died from the infection in childhood. Acquired immunity allowed the British army to employ smallpox as a biological weapon against North American Indian tribes in the aftermath of the French and Indian War.

No safe way of preventing smallpox existed until 1796, when an English country doctor named Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against it. During the ensuing 170 years, vaccination banished smallpox from the industrialized countries, but it remained a major cause of suffering and death in the developing world, killing almost two million people a year. Finally, in 1967, the World Health Organization launched an intensified global campaign to eradicate smallpox. By early 1978, the disease had been eliminated worldwide, a triumph ranking among the greatest achievements in medical history.

Even after smallpox eradication and the decision to halt the routine vaccination of civilians, laboratory stocks of the smallpox virus remained. During the 1980s, Soviet leaders cynically exploited the world's new vulnerability to smallpox by mass-producing the virus as a strategic weapon. After a Soviet defector exposed this top-secret program in 1992, the potential military threat triggered a series of urgent debates over how to respond. In recent years, the possible return of smallpox has taken an even greater urgency with the realization that clandestine stocks of the virus may still exist. In Scourge, Tucker tells the fascinating history of smallpox and draws some important lessons for the future.

For more information on Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox, please contact Raymond Zilinskas.


Go to CBW Resource Page

View other Books by CNS Staff.

Return to Top