Researcher who led fight to eradicate smallpox dies at 87

August 23, 2016 02:19

The American epidemiologist whose unwavering leadership resulted in the eradication nearly 40 years ago of smallpox, one of the world's most feared contagious diseases, has died.

Dr. Donald "D.A." Henderson was 87 when he died on Friday at a hospice care facility in Towson, Maryland, from complications following a hip fracture, Johns Hopkins University said in a statement. Henderson was a former dean of the school's Bloomberg School of Public Health.

He was most recently employed as a distinguished scholar at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security in Baltimore.

"D.A. Henderson truly changed the world for the better," the center's director, Tom Inglesby, said in a statement. Henderson was working on smallpox eradication at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1966 when the World Health Organization chose him to lead the global

eradication effort.

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