A Physician Travels to South Asia Seeking Enduring Lessons From the Eradication of Smallpox
Physician and podcast host C茅line Gounder traveled to India and Bangladesh and brought back never-before-heard stories, many from public health workers whose voices have been missing from the record documenting the eradication of smallpox.
What I Learned From the World鈥檚 Last Smallpox Patient
Declaring victory over a disease can be easier than meeting survivors鈥 needs.
Epidemic: The Scars of Smallpox
The series finale of 鈥淓pidemic: Eradicating Smallpox鈥 is a visit to the home of Rahima Banu, the last person with a documented case of naturally occurring variola major smallpox. When the virus was declared eradicated, she became a symbol of one of the greatest victories in global public health. What happened to Rahima Banu afterward?
Epidemic: What Good Is a Vaccine When There Is No Rice?
What good is a vaccine when there is no rice? Episode 7 of 鈥淓radicating Smallpox鈥 explores the barriers public health workers face in communities where people鈥檚 basic needs aren鈥檛 being met.
Epidemic: Bodies Remember What Was Done to Them
Trust is hard to build and easy to break. In Episode 6 of the 鈥淓radicating Smallpox鈥 podcast, meet Chandrakant Pandav, a health worker who used laughter and song to try to rebuild trust with communities harmed by India鈥檚 sometimes violent and coercive family planning campaign.
Episode 5 of the 鈥淓radicating Smallpox鈥 podcast explores how a partnership between public health institutions and a huge, influential private company was key in the campaign to eliminate smallpox.
Watch: Thinking Big in Public Health, Inspired by the End of Smallpox
A conversation about how the lessons from the victory over smallpox could be applied to public health challenges today.
Journalists Recap How Smallpox Was Wiped Out and How Opioid Settlement Cash Is Being Paid Out
蘑菇影院 Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
Epidemic: Speedboat Epidemiology
In Bangladesh, smallpox eradication workers went to great lengths to vaccinate even one person, sometimes traveling by speedboat, crossing rickety bamboo bridges or leech-infested paddy fields. Episode 4 of the 鈥淓radicating Smallpox鈥 podcast is about what it takes to bring care directly to people where they are.
In the early 1970s, public health workers buoyed by the motto 鈥渮ero pox!鈥 worked across India to achieve 100% vaccination against smallpox. This episode is about what happened when these zealous young people encountered hesitation.
Who gets credit for wiping smallpox from the planet? American men have been widely recognized while the contributions of South Asian public health workers have been less celebrated. Episode 2 of the 鈥淓radicating Smallpox鈥 podcast tells the story of Mahendra Dutta, an Indian public health leader, whose political savvy helped usher in a transformative approach to finding and containing smallpox cases.
Epidemic: The Goddess of Smallpox
To defeat smallpox in South Asia, public health workers had to navigate the region鈥檚 layered cultural ideas about the virus. They also dreamed big. In Episode 1, host C茅line Gounder wonders how the U.S. might tap into similar 鈥渕oral imagination鈥 to prepare for the next public health crisis.
Timeline: The Final Years of the Campaign to End Smallpox
Many people working in global health thought eradicating smallpox was impossible. They were wrong. Season 2 of the Epidemic podcast, 鈥淓radicating Smallpox,鈥 is a journey to South Asia during the last days of variola major smallpox. Explore the timeline to learn about significant dates in the final push to end the virus.
