Strains of smallpox should be eliminated and here is why. The resurgence of infectious diseases has been a huge problem in the 21st century. Imagine what the world would look like with the return of one of the globes most brutal disease; A disease like smallpox that could spread so easily through the air. Smallpox had both a high prevalence and incidence rate in the United States and many other parts of the world. Quantitative data and statistics display that about 30 percent of people with smallpox died from the disease and many others developed other problems. Many challenges were faced with the elimination of smallpox in its early years such as political and fund problems, many cases were not being reported, and it was not a top priority for the World Health Organization. Fortunately, after a couple of years, the World Health Organization and …show more content…
Variolation was a way to eliminate smallpox but it still led to deaths in about one to two percent of individuals. The smallpox infection was eventually eradicated through vaccination developed by Edward Jenner, and through many other public health services such as surveillance, prevention, cooperation, and health programs. The eradication of smallpox was significant in the world at the time but there are still many problems that have caused controversy today. One of those problems includes the remaining strains of smallpox that is located at the CDC in Atlanta and another in Russia. Throughout history, the infection dilemma has gone from being spread through sneezing and coughing, and now it may be able to spread through an attack. An attack of bioterrorism would be a disaster on any part of the world, which was seen by the attacks in September 2001. According to Thompson (2016), “If a smallpox outbreak were to occur today, the potential damage would be