Smallpox

The last person to catch smallpox in the wild was Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Merca, Somalia, in October 1977. He recovered. In May 1980 the World Health Assembly declared smallpox eradicated, making it the only human disease wiped out so far.

A 1978 laboratory accident in England caused the last known smallpox death. Samples are still kept in two high-security labs.