Smallpox Vaccination History

The history of vaccinations begin with Edward Jenner, the country doctor from Gloucestershire who found, growing on cows, a nearly harmless virus the protected people from smallpox. Jenner’s vaccine was safer, more reliable, and more durable than variolation, and it is still the only vaccine to have eliminated its reason for being-in 1980, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease extinct. For nearly a century and a half, smallpox was the only vaccine routinely administered, and it saved millions of lives . But the controversy that marked the return of the vaccine, amid bioterrorism hysteria in 2002, was only the latest twist in the remarkable, mysterious life of vaccines.

It's killed more than prostate cancer and breast cancer fatality rates together. Smallpox was the first disease to be eliminated from the world through public-health efforts and vaccination. Smallpox still poses a threat because existing laboratory strains may be used as biological weapons. Approximately one-third of people with smallpox died from the disease. Survivors were scarred for life. If the eye was infected, blindness often resulted.There are new experimental medications that might be effective in smallpox, but these have not been tested in human cases since the disease has been eradicated.The smallpox vaccine contains a live virus called vaccinia. It is administered by dipping a pronged piece of metal into the vaccine and then pricking the skin.

Edward Jenner and the Discovery of Vaccines Edward Jenner (1749-1823) trained in London, under John Hunter, and was an army surgeon for a period of time. After that, he spent his whole career as a country doctor in his home county, Gloucestershire (West of England). His research was based on careful case studies and clinical observation more than a hundred years before scientists could explain what viruses and diseases actually were. His innovative new method was successful to such an extent that by 1840 the British government had banned alternative preventive treatments against smallpox. [IMAGE]

Despite the disappearance of the plague, smallpox still ran rampant throughout the world. The terrible disease continued to kill millions of Europeans every year. An inoculation created in the early 1700s was a somewhat successful solution and thousands of Europeans underwent the operation to engraft their skin with smallpox (Doc 2). However, new, more efficient solution came in the form of Edward Jenner, who created the first smallpox vaccine by collecting cowpox from an infected person and inserting it into another individual’s arm (Doc 6). Edward Jenner’s new vaccine was virtually harmless and was the most efficient vaccination to date. The smallpox vaccine eradicated the disease in Europe and eventually, the entire world. Smallpox was the last great disease that Europeans faced and its elimination allowed Europe’s population to grow and

However, Jenner’s invention became a common practice only a few years after he released it to the public, and according to The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia, “By 1890 smallpox had virtually been eradicated from Britain.” (“Jenner, Edward (1749-1823)”) From the information about the first vaccination, we can see that vaccinations have been proven to eliminate deadly diseases, whether they receive opposition or not. Without immunizations, we would be overcome with diseases, such as smallpox, polio, and measles.

Smallpox is a viral infection caused by Variola major. This infection is currently one of the most dreaded diseases, and is believed to be more dangerous than the enemy’s sword. The exposure is usually an infection of the respiratory tract. After exposure, early symptoms are: headaches, back aches, fever, vomiting, discomfort, and feeling out of sorts. These symptoms go away usually in two days, and the patient feels better. Then about two days later, the patient has a flustered face, and lesions on the mouth, throat, and nasal membranes. At 5 days past exposure, red rashes and bumps appear on the skin, bleeding through skin, and mucous membranes. If the patients bleeds through their eyes, gums, or nose, the patient will not live much longer, but that is not usually the case. The bumps may touch each other or they may be separate from each other. If the bumps do not touch, the patients has a good chance of surviving. But if the bumps do touch, the patient has a forty percent chance of surviving. Dehydration is common in patients because it may be painful or difficult to drink. Around day ten, the bumps will become soft, and blisters will form. The fluid in the bumps is absorbed because of dehydration. A smell often comes from cracked bumps, and a second bacterial infection may occur due to the openings in the body. Two weeks after initial symptoms, the bumps and blisters are replaced by scabs. One week later the fever disappears, the patient returns to a normal life, and the

Jenner’s discovery of the link between cowpox and smallpox was significant to the development of a vaccine for smallpox. However, it can be argued that Jenner and his discovery were not enough on their own to bring medical progress. The factors Scientific thinking, Government Communication and Changing attitudes played a major and important role to bring medical progress.

Jenner’s vaccine was so successful that the World Health Organization declared the word “entirely eradicated” of human smallpox on December 9, 1979 (Spier, 2015). As a consequence of this monumental success and other successes like it, people forget how deadly diseases like this can be and fail to attribute their lack of a crippling disease to vaccinations. Other diseases that have been considered eliminated in a similar manner to smallpox are: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A & B, yellow fever (Spier, 2015).

Despite smallpox’s long history of harm, killing nearly 300 million people in the twentieth century alone, it is now considered eradicated thanks to a vaccine and vaccination program lead by the World Health Organization. Because of its eradication,

Not necessarily. In the United States, routine vaccination against smallpox ended in 1972. The level of immunity, if any, among those vaccinated before 1972 is uncertain; therefore, these persons are assumed to be susceptible. For those who were vaccinated, it is not known how long immunity lasts. Most estimates suggest that the vaccine gives full immunity to disease for 3 to 5 years. This means that a minority of the U.S. population has partial immunity at best. Immunity can be boosted effectively with a single revaccination. Prior infection with smallpox makes a person immune for the rest of their life.

Common side effects from vaccines can range from redness or swelling of the skin where the shot was administered, to severe allergic reactions. For most patients, these side effects are very minor, and go away within a couple of days (“Possible Side-effects”, 2015). All of these common side effects seem to fail in comparison to what symptoms a person may experience if they were infected with the disease these vaccines are protecting them against. For example, in the state of California during 2010, there were 9,120 cases of the whooping cough recorded. That year had the most recorded cases since 1940, when the vaccine against the whooping cough was introduced. In connection to this outbreak, ten infants, who were too young to be vaccinated against the whooping cough, died. It is disheartening to hear more and more of these types of stories when we already have a solution to the problem (“Vaccine Myths Debunked”, n.d.). We are likely to see more of these tragedies as the rates for vaccinations decrease. And we are likely to see many diseases that were once a rarity, make a comeback in our communities.

Edward Jenner, as a medical student, noticed that milkmaids who had cowpox, blistering on a cow’s udder, did not get smallpox. On May fourteenth, 1796, Jenner took fluid from a cowpox blister and scratched it into an eight year old boy named James Phipps (Jenner Tests Smallpox Vaccine). A blister appeared where Phipps was scratched, but soon went away. Phipps was inoculated again on July first of the same year, except with smallpox the following time. The boy did not develop smallpox, leaving the vaccine a

Imagine a quick spreading rash throughout the entire body, leaving not a single space behind; every opening and crevice in your body, including your mouth and eyes covered in painful bumps accompanied by high fever and severe body aches. Flat red spots transforming into fluid-filled lesions and soon oozing out yellow pus, evidently emitting a pungent odor to anyone who dared get close. The live virus present in the darkening crusty scabs that would soon fall off only to leave behind a deep pitted scarred filled complexion on anyone who was fortunate enough to survive. These scars would be forever remembered as the hallmark for the smallpox epidemic which tormented the world for over 3,000 years. (Riedel “Deadly Diseases”).

One of the most groundbreaking discoveries of medical history was the vaccination and eventual eradication of smallpox, thanks to Edward Jenner. When he noticed that milkmaids exposed to cowpox were immune to smallpox, he used the pus from a cowpox lesions and inoculated a young boy. The boy soon was sick from cowpox but recovered quickly. When he was then inoculated with smallpox matter, he never became ill. This proved that there was a way to save people from the deadly disease of smallpox. This led to a better understanding of immunology. Other vaccines such as polio, MMR, and influenza wouldn’t have been created as quickly, if at all without Jenner. It is suspected that his interest and curiosity for curing smallpox was when he was 13 years old as an apprentice to a surgeon; he heard a milkmaid say, “I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face.” Although it was already suspected there was a connection between the two, it wasn’t determined until Edward Jenner created the vaccination. Smallpox has been eradicated from the World since 1980 because of this.

The Center for Disease Control describes vaccines as the greatest development in public health since clean drinking water. For several decades, vaccines have saved countless lives and helped eradicate some fatal diseases. The push to do away with vaccines will not only endanger our youth, but our society as a whole. Vaccination is needed to maintain a healthy balance within our country. Vaccines provide the immunity that comes from a natural infection without the consequences of a natural infection. Vaccinations save an ever-growing amount of lives every year. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination (“Vaccine ProCon”).