The lessons of the failed malaria eradication campaign were key to the eventual success of the smallpox program. In addition to more cooperation with existing community health practitioners and more investment in research, surveillance for smallpox cases was a key strategy of the campaign. Surveillance proved to be the ultimate quality control measure, the guide to improved operations, and the yardstick of progress. One of the major reasons for the success of the smallpox program was the understanding that interdependence would be required if global results were to be achieved. These principles have subsequently been adopted in other recent eradication battles. This poster, designed by Rene Gauch, offers a reward of 1000 dollars to "the first person reporting an active smallpox case resulting from human to human transmission and confirmed by laboratory tests." The reward was valid until the global eradication of smallpox was certified in 1980. Featuring an abstraction of a human face in a pointillist style, the symbolism in the design exhibits a haunting quality appropriate to the subject. The points are presumably meant to represent smallpox lesions.. NOTE: Slide of original poster image is slightly blurry.
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