Smallpox

The horrifying statistics, the scientific facts, and the public-health breakthroughs will all grab readers in this clearly presented overview of smallpox, “the world’s greatest killer.” The highly readable design packs in a lot on each double-page spread, with spacious type, boxed facts, full-color photographs (including graphic images of people suffering with the disease), and maps, as well as microscopic images of the virus that illustrate how it spreads. Following the disease’s global history through Asia, Africa, and Europe, and then its spread to the Americas, the book also discusses smallpox symptoms and describes exactly what the virus does inside the body. Up to 500 million people worldwide were killed by smallpox in the 100 years before the World Health Organization (WHO) vaccination program started in 1967, and in 1980, WHO announced that smallpox had been defeated. The answer to the subtitle’s question is yes, but an emergency plan is in place if an outbreak should ever recur. A full bibliography concludes this title in the Nightmare Plagues series.