6 October 2008: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Harald zur Hausen for showing that human papillomaviruses cause cervical cancer, and to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for discovering HIV

7 October 2005: 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic strain reconstituted

9 October 1991: Didanosine was the second drug approved for HIV/AIDS

12 October 1928: First use of an iron lung in a poliomyelitis patient

12 October 2007: Raltegravir (pictured) approved; first HIV integrase inhibitor

14 October 1977: Habiba Nur Ali was the last person to die from naturally occurring smallpox

14 October 2010: Rinderpest eradication efforts announced as stopping by the UN

16 October 1975: Last known case of naturally occurring Variola major smallpox reported

25 October 2012: Alipogene tiparvovec, a gene therapy for lipoprotein lipase deficiency using an adeno-associated virus-based vector, was the first gene therapy to be licensed

26 October 1977: Ali Maow Maalin developed smallpox rash; the last known case of naturally occurring Variola minor smallpox

26 October 1979: Smallpox eradication in the Horn of Africa formally declared by WHO, with informal declaration of global eradication

27 October 2015: Talimogene laherparepvec was the first oncolytic virus to be approved by the FDA to treat cancer