Name Rahima Banu | ||
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Rahima Banu Begum (Bengali: রহিমা বানু বেগুম; born 1972) is the last known person to have been infected with naturally occurring Variola major smallpox, the more deadly variety of the disease.
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The disease
The case was reported on 16 October 1975, when Banu was three years old, and living in the village of Kuralia on Bhola Island in the Bangladesh district of Barisal. Her case was reported by an eight-year-old girl, Bilkisunnessa, who was paid 250 taka. Information on the case was forwarded via telegram to D.A. Henderson, who led the World Health Organization's campaign to eradicate the disease. The World Health Organization team arrived and cared for Banu, who recovered fully. On 24 November 1975 she was declared free of the virus. Scabs of the virus from her body where transferred to the CDC office in Atlanta, where they are currently stored along with hundreds of other samples. Everyone on the Island who might have come in contact with the infected were vaccinated. The Island was searched to find other infected. The strain from her sample is known as Bangladesh 1975 formally and the Rahima strain informally.
Later life
She created income for her family by posing for photos. In an interview in 2009, Banu said she had four children after marrying a farmer at the age of 18. She said that villagers and even her in-laws treated her poorly because she had suffered from smallpox.