Dr Donald Henderson, who led fight to eradicate smallpox

The American epidemiologist whose leadership resulted in the eradication of smallpox, one of the world’s most feared contagious diseases, has died aged 87.

Dr Donald “DA” Henderson, right, died at a hospice care facility in Towson, Maryland, from complications following a hip fracture, Johns Hopkins University said.

Dr Henderson was a former dean of the institution’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

He was most recently employed as a distinguished scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre’s centre for health security in Baltimore.

Director Tom Inglesby said: “DA Henderson truly changed the world for the better.”

Dr Henderson was working on smallpox eradication at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 1966 when the World Health Organisation (WHO) chose him to lead the global eradication effort. The battle was essentially won during a 10-year period, 1967-77, by medical workers using a surveillance-and-containment strategy rather than the mass-vaccination approach used in the past.

The last naturally occurring case of smallpox was diagnosed in Somalia in 1977. The World Health Assembly declared the deadly disease eradicated in 1980.