By 
Julie Garon
 | 
TED-Ed Original

Learning from smallpox: How to eradicate a disease

For most of human history we have sought to treat and cure diseases. But only in recent decades did it become possible to ensure that a particular disease never threatens humanity again. Julie Garon and Walter A. Orenstein detail how the story of smallpox - the first and only disease to be permanently eliminated - shows how disease eradication can happen and why it is so difficult to achieve.

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