Dhaka, June 5 -- Before coronavirus, there were Ebola, SARS, and MERS. Even before that there was Spanish flu. But way way before that the world suffered for centuries from another virus called variola. Better known as smallpox, the earliest documented trace of the virus was found in three Egyptian mummies that are more than 2,500 years old. Forty years ago, after the loss of countless lives, the world finally eliminated the variola virus from the face of the earth, ending the scourge of smallpox.

Bangladesh is indelibly linked to this historic triumph. In 1976, Rahima Banu, a three-year-old girl from Kuralia, Bhola, was identified as the last person known to have acquired the virus naturally. Another little girl from the same village, 8...