“The end of smallpox—but for the World Health Organization (WHO), it is only the end of the beginning. It has been said that if we had known beforehand “the heart-aches and the thousand natural shocks” that awaited us, we would never have undertaken the smallpox eradication programme....Victory over smallpox has implications that go far beyond the individuals directly concerned, however. It reasserts our ability to change the world around us for the better, through mutual collaboration and mobilization of resources, allied to human energies and the will to succeed. It comes like a freshening wind for a vessel to long becalmed, creating hopeful new impetus as we set our course towards Health for All by the Year 2000,” as written by then Director-General of The WHO, Dr. Halfdan Mahler, in celebration of the global eradication of smallpox (1).