[The last case of smallpox in Denmark--the organizing conditions in 1970].

Smallpox contributed to many deaths in Denmark up to the introduction of the vaccination in the beginning of the 19th. Century. The last minor smallpox epidemic in Denmark was in 1924, and subsequently no doctors had special experience in smallpox. In September 1970 a Norwegian medical student died from smallpox in Copenhagen after returning from a journey to Afghanistan, where he has been hospitalized for enteritis. During the 5 days in Copenhagen before hospitalization he had had extensive contacts with many people. He was hospitalized at Blegdamshospital and was isolated, and the diagnosis of smallpox was verified on day 5. He was then totally isolated in a pavilion with 2 nurses and one doctor. The initial diarrhoea (Salmonella typhimurium), and later septicaemia with salmonella, the copious expectoration up to 1 1/2 l pr day (Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, E. coli, 9-streptococci), the enormous exudation from the desquamated skin caused large problems concerning water, electrolytes and protein balance, requiring an input up to 13 1 per day. It was necessary to perform tracheotomy and artificial ventilation. He was treated as a patient with extensive burns with metal sheets and when his body temperature fell to 30 degrees C with electrical heat. He died after 25 days of smallpox with complicating extensive skin ulavs corresponding to a pathological picture of toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). The containment was successful in cooperation with the Danish National Board on Health, the Medical Officer of Health from Copenhagen and the county (where the patient lived), police, State Serum Institute, and Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs. Vaccination of the exposed persons and the hospital staff, isolation in small groups (maximum 20 persons) of 589 primary contacts in the hospital pavilion-wards and 12 military tents were performed. No secondary cases occurred. The outbreak of smallpox in Copenhagen ended, and the city was not declared "local infected area", and we avoided a panic mass vaccination of large group of people. The article describes these activities, which are effectuated within a few days and headed by a capable and unanimous leadership, in a serious and complicated situation and with an engaged cooperation from the whole staff.