From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Disease outbreak in Poland
1963 smallpox epidemic in Wrocław
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Protective clothing worn by health workers during the epidemic
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Disease
| Smallpox
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Virus strain
| Variola vera
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Location
| Polish People's Republic
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Index case
| A public officer returning from India (or another Asian country)
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Dates
| 17 July - 19 September 1963
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Confirmed cases
| 99
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Deaths
| 7
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An outbreak of
smallpox
occurred in the city of
Wrocław
in
Poland
in the summer of 1963. The disease was brought to Poland by an officer in the
Ministry of Public Security
who had returned from
India
. The
epidemic
lasted for two months, causing 99 people to fall ill and seven to die. It caused Wrocław to close and quarantine itself.
[1]
[2]
It was one of the last smallpox outbreaks in Europe (the
1972 Yugoslav smallpox outbreak
was last)
[3]
and the biggest disease outbreak in Europe until the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
[4]
Poland started vaccination against smallpox in 1919 and eradicated it in 1937.
[5]
Patient zero
[
edit
]
The officer who brought the virus was a lieutenant colonel, Bonifacy Jedynak. He had returned from
Delhi
,
India
on 22 May 1963 and became infected by an unknown disease. He went to the hospital of the interior ministry in
Wrocław
where he was diagnosed with
malaria
. Meanwhile smallpox was transmitted to nurse who had mild symptoms and was considered to get
chickenpox
.
[6]
[4]
Her son, daughter and the attending doctor were infected and died later.
[4]
Progress of epidemic
[
edit
]
Lonia Kowalczyk was the first person who died because of the infection.
[7]
On 15 July 1963, an anti-epidemic emergency was announced in the city, 47 days after the first case of the disease. 10,000 vaccines were delivered from the Polish capital
Warsaw
that day. Around 1 million of vaccines was delivered from
Soviet Union
and from
Hungary
. Vaccination was mandatory from 1 August 1963. Non-stop vaccination centre was at
Wrocław
train station. Vaccination campaign took 2 months.
Initial estimate of
WHO
was that epidemic will last for two years with 2,000 deaths. Thanks to fast response and availability of vaccination, epidemic was suppressed and it was officially ended on 19 September 1963. 8.5 million of people were vaccinated in total.
[4]
References
[
edit
]