Table 1. Summary of smallpox vaccination programmes in the reference populations, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, 1900–1984.

	Denmark [5,46]	France [6]	The Netherlands [7,18]	Spain [8]
Beginning of smallpox vaccination	1931	1901	1900	1900
End of smallpox vaccination	1977	1979 for primary vaccination 1984 for booster doses	1976	1979
Target population of primary vaccination	Children before school admission	Children during the first year of life	Children under 1 year of age (but regularly given up to 2 years of age)	Children at 20 months of age, with catch-up doses administered at school age or later (e.g. military service)
Booster doses	No	Yes, boosters recommended at ages 11 and 21 years (incl. during mandatory military service)	No (rarely in the military)	Yes, for men in the military service
Mandatory	Yes, before school admission, except when immunocompromised	Yes, for primary vaccination and military service	Yes, for school children until 1928	No