World Health Organisation leaflet about smallpox

Fold out colour leaflet titled 'Smallpox - a pictorial guide to diagnosis', produced by the World Health Organisation, c1970-1 and marked with a pre-decimal price of 6 shillings.

In this fold-out leaflet, through a series of graphic colour photographs the different stages of smallpox and the main sites of the resulting spots are outlined, as is the expected length of each of the stages of the disease. As the far milder Chickenpox could produce similar marks on the skin, images of that disease were also included in the leaflet in order to help with any diagnosis. This leaflet was produced for use in Africa during the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global smallpox eradication campaign. As such, the individuals featured in the leaflet are from that continent and these are mainly infants and young children, who were particularly vulnerable to the disease.

The World Health Organisation was able to declare that the world was smallpox free in 1980. It remains the one human disease that has been eradicated through direct public health action.