Question 1

True or false: The smallpox vaccine was invented by Louis Pasteur.

Accepted Answer

False. False. Edward Jenner developed the first smallpox vaccine in 1796 using cowpox; Pasteur worked on rabies later.

Question 2

True or false: The World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1980.

Accepted Answer

True. True. The WHO made the official declaration on May 8, 1980, after a global vaccination campaign lasting over a decade.

Question 3

True or false: Smallpox was eradicated primarily using antiviral drugs.

Accepted Answer

False. False. No antiviral existed; eradication relied on the smallpox vaccine and ring vaccination strategies.

Question 4

True or false: Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated globally.

Accepted Answer

True. True. Rinderpest is an animal disease; smallpox remains the only human disease wiped out worldwide through vaccination.

Question 5

True or false: Smallpox could be eradicated again if it ever reemerged in nature.

Accepted Answer

True. True. Smallpox only infects humans and has no animal reservoir. Effective vaccines and ring vaccination—the method used to eradicate it in 1980—would likely contain any re-emergence and enable eradication again.

Question 6

True or false: The Soviet Union secretly stockpiled smallpox virus for bioweapons after eradication.

Accepted Answer

True. True. After eradication, the Soviet Union covertly maintained an offensive bioweapons program that stockpiled smallpox, as revealed by defector Ken Alibek and other sources.

Question 7

True or false: The last known natural case of smallpox was in a hospital cook in Somalia.

Accepted Answer

True. True. Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Somalia, was the last person infected naturally in 1977.

Question 8

True or false: Smallpox eradication cost less than a billion dollars in total.

Accepted Answer

True. True. The total cost was about $300 million, saving billions annually in vaccine and treatment costs.

Smallpox eradication Trivia Questions