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D.A. Henderson, MD, MPH, is a distinguished scholar at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC and professor of public health and medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He also is dean emeritus of, and a professor at, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies. Dr. Henderson previously served as director of the U.S. Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and as principal science advisor in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
From 1966 to 1977, Dr. Henderson served as director of the World Health Organization (WHO) program working to eliminate smallpox from the globe. Through his work, smallpox became the first disease ever to be eradicated.
Throughout his career, Dr. Henderson has served as an advisor to many organizations in the United States and abroad. His recent roles in this capacity have included chairman of the Technical Advisory Group on Vaccines of the Pan American Health Organization and chairman of the WHO ad hoc Orthopoxvirus Advisory Committee.
In 2002, Henderson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He also is a recipient of the National Medal of Science and the National Academy of Sciences' Public Welfare Medal, and he shared the Japan Prize with two colleagues. He has received honorary degrees from 17 universities and special awards from 19 countries.
Dr. Henderson is a member of the editorial board for the peer-reviewed journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice and Science. He has authored more than 200 articles and scientific papers and 31 book chapters, and is coauthor of the book, Smallpox and Its Eradication (WHO, 1988).
A native of Lakewood, Ohio, Dr. Henderson graduated from Oberlin College in 1950, the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1954, and the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1960. He completed his medical residency at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, N.Y.
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 D.A. Henderson’s just-released account of the historic quest to eliminate smallpox from the world. D.A. Henderson (Courtesy of UPMC Center for Biosecurity) The May 1980 issue of the WHO magazine World Health made the eradication of smallpox its cover story. (Courtesy of WHO.)  Ramses V of Egypt died around 1145 BCE, presumably of smallpox. His mummified head and torso bear the characteristic lesions of the disease. Smallpox victims included many other rulers throughout history, among them Louis XV of France, Mary II of England, and the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I. (Courtesy of WHO.) Members of the WHO Eradication Unit began using recognition cards in 1972 to help locate people infected with smallpox. They showed the pictures to villagers and asked if they had seen anyone with a similar rash. The children pictured on this recognition card are in about the eighth day of the rash. Typically, a person is no longer contagious within three to four weeks after the rash forms. Neither of the pictured cases is considered severe. Smallpox Eradication Unit member Alan Schnur proves less nimble on a single-pole bamboo bridge in Bangladesh than the more accustomed locals. Between 1968 and 1975 (interrupted by the bloody independence war of 1971), the WHO fought smallpox in Bangladesh where, as in many of the countries targeted for the smallpox program, a rudimentary infrastructure made access and travel difficult. Isolation huts for smallpox victims in Somalia and Ethiopia were built away from encampments and enclosed by a thorn-bush barrier to keep out wild animals and visitors. The pictured hut housed a nomad with smallpox. (Courtesy of T.S. Jones) This makeshift bridge in Ethiopia illustrates the difficulty faced by Smallpox Eradication Unit workers in reaching many populations. In Ethiopia, half the population was said to live more than a day’s walk from any accessible road. (Courtesy of WHO).
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