Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

"Foege passed away on Saturday at the age of 89, according to the Task Force for Global Health, a public health organization he co-founded. Foege headed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Smallpox Eradication Program in the 1970s. Before the disease was officially eradicated in 1980, it killed around one in three people who were infected. According to the CDC, there have been no new smallpox cases since 1977."

"Foege went on to lead the CDC and served as a senior medical adviser and senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2012 then president Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Foege was a vocal proponent of vaccines for public health, writing with epidemiologist Larry Brilliant in Scientific American in 2013 that the effort to eliminate polio has never been closer to success."

William Foege led the CDC's Smallpox Eradication Program in the 1970s and co-founded the Task Force for Global Health. He died at age 89. Smallpox killed about one in three infected people before eradication in 1980, and there have been no new cases since 1977. Foege later led the CDC and served as a senior medical adviser and senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Foege was a prominent vaccine advocate and collaborated on polio eradication efforts, and smallpox eradication prevented hundreds of millions of deaths.

Read at www.scientificamerican.com