The idea of global smallpox eradication traces back to Professor Victor Zhdanov, the vice minister of health of the USSR. At the 1958 meeting at the eleventh World Health Assembly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Professor Zhdanov gave an impassioned speech on eradicating smallpox from the world. He championed vaccination as a way of containing epidemics, but scientists were skeptical about this approach. Major WHO programs aimed at eradicating disease were nothing new; at the time, programs to eliminate both yellow fever and malaria were under way, but unfortunately, neither was showing much success. To add smallpox to eradication efforts would require funds that were not readily available. Therefore, the goal of eradicating smallpox was greeted less than enthusiastically by many countries that had limited funds to spare.With an initial budget of only $100,000 a year, the smallpox project appeared to be doomed to failure from the start.