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Smallpox vaccine pioneer William Foege dies aged 89

 
Jan 27, 2026, 6:45am EST
 
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Foege. William Foege. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
 
 

William Foege, the mastermind behind the world’s eradication of smallpox, died aged 89. The disease was among the world’s deadliest: It killed around a third of those infected, and as recently as 1967, there were an estimated 15 million cases worldwide. But Foege’s strategy of “ring vaccination” — inoculating close contacts of a case — helped control outbreaks efficiently. The last recorded case was in 1977.

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