Former head of the World Health Organisation, Donald A. Henderson who was intrumental in leading the worldwide battle against small pox with the aid of vaccination in the 1970s and helped in nearly wiping off the disease, died last Friday in Baltimore. Henderson was 87 when he died Friday at a hospice care facility in Towson, Maryland, from complications following a hip fracture, Johns Hopkins University said in a statement.
Advertisement
One of the world’s deadliest diseases, smallpox killed hundreds of millions of people in the last century alone.
Richard Preston, the best-selling author of books including The Hot Zone about the Ebola virus, and The Demon in the Freezer about smallpox, told Newsday.com, “I think it can be fairly said that the smallpox eradication was the single greatest achievement in the history of medicine”.
Apart from causing great pain, it often caused lesions on the face and body.
The American epidemiologist whose unwavering leadership resulted in the eradication almost 40 years ago of smallpox, one of the world’s most feared contagious diseases, has died. A third of victims died.
Heading an army of field workers around the world under an initiative of the World Health Organization, Henderson oversaw the implementation of a systematic vaccination program that focused on isolating outbreaks instead of attempting mass vaccinations.
Michael Klag, dean of the Bloomberg school at Johns Hopkins, described Henderson in the school’s statement as “a force of nature who, until recently, seemed invulnerable”. “He led the effort to rid the world of smallpox”.
He received several accolades throughout his career including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, Thailand’s Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health in 2015 and the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon in 2013.
“D.A. Henderson truly changed the world for the better”, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Tom Inglesby said in a statement. “He is truly irreplaceable”.
Advertisement
Dr. Henderson is survived by his wife, Nana Irene Bragg, his daughter, Leigh Henderson and two sons, David and Douglas Henderson, according to the report.
