1963 smallpox epidemic in Wrocław

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1963 smallpox epidemic in Wrocław
Ospa2.png
Protective clothing worn by health workers during the epidemic
DiseaseSmallpox
Virus strainVariola vera
LocationPolish People's Republic
Index caseA public officer returning from India (or another Asian country)
Dates17 July - 19 September 1963
Confirmed cases99
Deaths
7

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]

Patient zero

The officer who brought the virus was a lieutenant colonel, Bonifacy Jedynak. He had returned from India (or according to some sources, either Burma or Vietnam) 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. He recovered in hospital and was discharged, but unknowingly also carried smallpox, managing to infect one hospital worker with it.[4]

Diagnosis

Lonia Kowalczyk was the first person who died because of the infection.[5] 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.

Closure of the city

Sign noting the restriction of entry into Wrocław

Vaccination treatments and end of epidemic

References

  1. ^ "Epidemic in Wrocław in 1963". Institute of National Remembrance. 18 March 2020.
  2. ^ "SMALLPOX BATTLE WIDENED IN POLAND". The New York Times. 27 July 1963. ProQuest 116618718.
  3. ^ Żuk, Piotr; Żuk, Paweł (24 September 2019). "One of the recent attacks of smallpox in Europe: A massive vaccination campaign during the epidemic in Wrocław in 1963". Vaccine. 37 (41): 6125–6131. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.08.038. PMID 31455585. S2CID 201654865.
  4. ^ Jasińska, Joanna (5 April 2020). "Lockdown and isolation: the summer a Polish city defeated an outbreak of one of the world's deadliest diseases". The First News.
  5. ^ Rosalak, Maciej (21 October 2020). "Wrocław w szponach zarazy. Miasto zostało odcięte od reszty kraju" [Wrocław in the grip of a plague. The city was cut off from the rest of the country]. Historia Do Rzeczy (in Polish).
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