Does the smallpox virus still exist?

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Smallpox was one of the first diseases to be controlled by a vaccine. In 1967 the World Health Organization (WHO) began a global vaccination program against smallpox, and in 1980 the disease was officially declared eradicated in the wild. Stocks of variola major were subsequently maintained in the United States and Russia.