Portal:Viruses/Selected outbreak/5

The last recorded smallpox death occurred during the 1978 smallpox outbreak in Birmingham, UK. The outbreak resulted from accidental exposure to the Abid strain of Variola major, from a laboratory, headed by Henry Bedson, at the University of Birmingham Medical School – also associated with an outbreak in 1966. Bedson was investigating strains of smallpox known as whitepox, considered a potential threat to the smallpox eradication campaign, then in its final stages.

A medical photographer who worked on the floor above the laboratory showed smallpox symptoms in August and died the following month; one of her contacts was also infected but survived. The government inquiry into the outbreak concluded that she had been infected in late July, possibly via ducting, although the precise route of transmission was subsequently challenged. The inquiry criticised the university's safety procedures. Bedson committed suicide while under quarantine. Radical changes in UK research practices for handling dangerous pathogens followed, and all known stocks of smallpox virus were concentrated in two laboratories.