Vaccine court
The VICP covers all vaccines listed on the Vaccine Injury Table maintained by the Secretary of Health and Human Services; in 2007 the list included vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), polio, hepatitis B, varicella (chicken pox), "Haemophilus influenzae" type b, rotavirus, and pneumonia. From 1988 until 8 January 2008, 5,263 claims relating to autism, and 2,865 non-autism claims, were made to the VICP. 925 of these claims, one autism-related (see previous rulings), were compensated, with 1,158 non-autism and 350 autism claims dismissed; awards (including attorney's fees) totaled $847 million. The VICP also applies to claims for injuries suffered before 1988; there were 4,264 of these claims of which 1,189 were compensated with awards totaling $903 million.
Vaccinia
Smallpox was the first disease to be widely prevented by vaccination due to pioneering work by the English physician and scientist Edward Jenner, in the eighteenth century, using cowpox virus. Vaccinia virus is the active constituent of the vaccine that eradicated smallpox, making it the first human disease to be eradicated. This endeavour was carried out by the World Health Organization under the Smallpox Eradication Program. Post eradication of smallpox, scientists study vaccinia virus to use as a tool for delivering genes into biological tissues (gene therapy and genetic engineering) and because of concerns about smallpox being used as an agent for bioterrorism.