Today in History Part II: Smallpox claims its last known victim, 1978
In the summer of 1978, the last known case of smallpox was reported, claiming the life of 40-year-old medical photographer Janet Parker. But how did the disease, thought to have been eradicated across the world, come to be in Britain's second city?
It was Friday 11 August when Janet Parker first began to feel unwell.
Within days, Mrs Parker, who worked in the anatomy department at Birmingham Medical School, had developed unsightly red spots on her back, limbs and face.
When the doctor was called, she was told she had chickenpox.
But Mrs Parker's mother, Hilda Witcomb, was sceptical. She had nursed her daughter through the virus as a child, and the large blistering pustules now appearing on her body were markedly different.
With no signs of improvement, a hospital appointment was arranged and the 40-year-old was admitted to the Catherine-de-Barnes Isolation Hospital in Solihull on 20 August.
By now Mrs Parker was so weak she could not stand unaided.
"I do remember thinking she was very poorly, she had a very dramatic rash," said Prof Deborah Symmons, the first member of medical staff to see Mrs Parker when she was admitted.
"It was widely thought the last [smallpox] case had occurred."
As Prof Symmons examined Mrs Parker, it was only then the dreaded word "variola" - the scientific name for the disease - made it on to her medical notes for the first time, and soon the doctors' worst fears were confirmed.
Smallpox, the last natural case of which anywhere in the world had been reported in Somalia in 1977, was back - in Birmingham.
Yes, I'm up to date on vaccines. No, I don't want to have a phony vaccine debate with people who "have done the research" because you haven't unless you are an actual M.D.
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