"Smallpox is dead!", front cover of the magazine of the World Health Organization, "World Health" (May 1980)

The WHO smallpox eradication campaign was launched in its intensified form in 1967, and in four years had wiped out smallpox in Latin America. Four more years toppled the disease's last bastion in Asia. The multi-national teams closed in on Somalia, scene of "the last stand". The eradication of smallpox from the world was certified by the Global Commission, an independent panel of scientists drawn from 19 nations, in December 1979 at WHO Headquarters, Geneva.