Abstract:
For centuries smallpox used to be one of the most fatal infectious human diseases.Progress in medicine enabled to combat this disease effectively insomuch thatsmallpox has been eradicated in the 1970s. Nevertheless it was a long and windingroad to go there. This paper illustrates the fight against smallpox in the Austriancrownland Styria. Although the method of smallpox vaccination was well known inAustria already at the beginning of the 19th century, smallpox remained a seriousdanger for almost another on75e hundred years. With a bunch of measures theAustrian government and local authorities ramped up the fight against smallpox andsucceeded. Improvements of vaccine quality, vaccination programs for schoolchildrenand soldiers, revaccination as well as emergency plans led to the repression ofsmallpox. This outcome is even more astonishing, by taking into account that inAustria a compulsory vaccination was introduced not before the year 1948. This paperoutlines the development of smallpox morbidity as well as lethality in the formerAustrian crownland Styria and how governmental activities affected the prevalence ofsmallpox.