"Smallpox, which spreads by respiration and kills roughly one in three of those infected, took hundreds of millions of lives during a recorded history dating to Pharaonic Egypt. The last case was in 1978, and the disease was declared eradicated on May 8, 1980."
Barton Gellman is an American journalist and author known for national security and surveillance reporting. He has worked with major U.S. publications and received Pulitzer Prize recognition for investigative reporting.