Last Natural Smallpox Infection

Date: October 26, 1977 • Location: Rome, Italy

Somali hospital cook Ali Maow Maalin began displaying symptoms of smallpox, becoming the last person known to be naturally infected by the disease.

Ali Maow Maalin was a Somali hospital cook and health worker from Merca who is the last person known to have been infected with naturally occurring Variola minor smallpox. The disease was diagnosed in October 1977 and Maalin made a full recovery. Although he had many contacts, none of them developed the disease, and an aggressive containment campaign was successful in preventing an outbreak. Smallpox was declared to have been eradicated globally by the World Health Organization (WHO) two years later. Maalin was subsequently involved in the successful poliomyelitis eradication campaign in Somalia, and he died of malaria while carrying out polio vaccinations after the re-emergence of the poliovirus in 2013.