- Ali Maow Maalin
Ali Maow Maalin was the last person in the world known to be infected with naturally occurring
smallpox . At age 23, Maalin was a cook at the hospital in the town ofMerca ,Somalia , as well as an occasional vaccinator for aWorld Health Organization smallpox eradication team. In October 1977, he went out to meet two children with smallpox symptoms being brought in from an outlying village. On26 October 1977 , he was diagnosed with an infection of the "Variola minor" strain of smallpox. Maalin had previously received thesmallpox vaccine but was apparently not successfully vaccinated. He subsequently recovered.Maalin volunteered in the successful effort to eradicate
polio in Somalia in 2008. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7312603.stm "War-torn Somalia eradicates polio"] ,BBC News ,25 March 2008 ]See also
*
Rahima Banu
*Janet Parker Notes and references
External links
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/video/d_sma1_dis_smallpox2.html The End of Smallpox: Part II - The Last Case] , PBS Rx for Survival, streaming video
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