| Bradford smallpox outbreak of 1962 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bradford Children's Hospital, where the index case was admitted | |
 Shown within West Yorkshire | |
| Location | Bradford, UK |
| First reported | 11 January 1962 |
| Index case | Nine year old girl from Karachi |
| Arrival date | 16 December 1961 |
| Date | 1961-12 February 1962 |
Type | Smallpox |
| Confirmed cases | 14 |
Deaths | 6 |
An outbreak of smallpox in Bradford in 1962 first came to attention on 11 January 1962, when a cook from the children's hospital in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, presented with an unexplained fever and was found to have changes in her blood similar to another sick person at the nearby St Luke's Hospital, both samples appearing compatible with smallpox. The index case was later discovered to be a nine-year old girl who arrived in the UK on 16 December 1961 from Karachi, Pakistan, where there was an ongoing epidemic of smallpox.
The outbreak resulted in 14 cases of smallpox and contact tracing of over 1,400 individuals. Within five days either 250,000 or 285,000 people had been vaccinated. Six deaths were directly due to the disease and the outbreak was officially declared over on 12 February 1962.