Rahima Banu

In 1975, two-year-old Rahima Banu contracted last known case of naturally-occurring variola major Smallpox.

Rahima Banu Begum (Bengali: রহিমা বানু বেগুম; born 1972)[1] is the last known person to have been infected with naturally occurring Variola major smallpox, the more deadly variety of the disease.[2][3]

The disease

The case was reported on 16 October 1975,[4] when Banu was three years old,[5] and living in the village of Kuralia on Bhola Island in the Bangladesh district of Barisal.[6] Her case was reported by an eight-year-old girl, Bilkisunnessa,[7] who was paid 250 taka.[8] Information on the case was forwarded via telegram to D.A. Henderson, who led the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate the disease.[9] The World Health Organization team arrived and cared for Banu, who recovered fully. On 24 November 1975 she was declared free of the virus.[10] Scabs of the virus from her body where transferred to the CDC office in Atlanta, where they are currently stored along with hundreds of other samples.[11] Everyone on the Island who might have come in contact with the infected were vaccinated. The Island was searched to find other infected.[12] The strain from her sample is known as Bangladesh 1975 formally and the Rahima strain informally.[13]

Later life

She created income for her family by posing for photos.[14] In an interview in 2009, Banu said she had four children after marrying a farmer at the age of 18. She said that villagers and even her in-laws treated her poorly because she had suffered from smallpox.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Goodfield, June (1 January 1991). A Chance to Live. Macmillan Publishing Company. p. 4. ISBN 9780025446557.
  2. ↑ Tucker, Jonathan B. (9 December 2016). Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox. Grove Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780802139399.
  3. ↑ Pendergrast, Mark (1 January 2010). Inside the Outbreaks: The Elite Medical Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 157. ISBN 0151011206.
  4. ↑ Hopkins, Donald R. (15 September 2002). The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226351681.
  5. ↑ Huber, Peter (12 November 2013). The Cure in the Code: How 20th Century Law is Undermining 21st Century Medicine. Basic Books. ISBN 0465069819.
  6. ↑ Kelley, Bob (16 February 2015). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Arcadia Publishing. p. 62. ISBN 9781439649466.
  7. ↑ GOODFIELD (29 June 2013). Quest for the Killers. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9781468467437.
  8. ↑ Image caption of U.S. Centers for Disease Control Public Health Image LibraryC image number 7762
  9. ↑ Henderson, D.A. (15 October 2010). "Interview with D.A. Henderson, sourced at History of Vaccines website". College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  10. ↑ Joarder, A. Kashem; Tarantola, D.; Tulloch, J. (1 January 1980). The eradication of smallpox from Bangladesh. World Health Organization, South-East Asia Regional Office. p. 48. ISBN 9789290221081.
  11. ↑ McKenna, Maryn (17 June 2008). Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439104958.
  12. ↑ Preston, Richard (1 January 2003). The Demon in the Freezer. Random House. p. 91. ISBN 9780345466631.
  13. ↑ Felker, Clay (1 January 2000). The Best American Magazine Writing 2000. PublicAffairs. p. 82. ISBN 158648009X.
  14. ↑ Kotar, S. L.; Gessler, J. E. (12 April 2013). Smallpox: A History. McFarland. p. 374. ISBN 9780786468232.
  15. ↑ "Asia Marks 30 Years since World Declared Free of Smallpox". Voice of America. 2 November 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  16. ↑ See also Image caption of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Image Library image number 7765
  17. ↑ Garrett, Laurie (31 October 1994). The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance. Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 9781429953276.
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