The Epidemic Of Smallpox : A Debate For Many Parents

Vaccinations have been actively used for over 200 years now and have been effective for over 200 years as well. Western medicine’s introduction to the practice is said to have occurred within the eighteenth century, when a traveling British aristocrat, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, reported her observations of Turkish children being injected with pus from smallpox victims. Although this practice seemed quite harsh, most of these children would contract only a mild version of the illness. In return, these recipients would retain a lifelong immunity to this terrible disease (World of Microbiology & Immunology). Similarly, in the United States, a Puritan minister by the name of Cotton Mather learned about inoculation from his African slave, Onesimus. Onesimus claimed that he was inoculated with smallpox pus and never caught the tragic disease (Williams). This type of medicinal treatment was initially rejected by most Western practitioners. They felt it was a dangerous and barbarous practice, but vaccination gained a tremendous amount of support at the turn of the nineteenth century when English physician Edward Jenner created a new smallpox vaccine derived from the relatively mild cowpox virus (Riedel). There’s no doubt that history has shown the positive outcomes of immunization and continued to show them as technology and medicine progressed.

Edward Jenner invented a vaccine by using a naturally-acquired and mild cowpox to prevent smallpox. More than one thousand people were vaccinated in England alone within three years. The print media played an important role in spreading the word about these vaccinations and smallpox was finally eradicated in 1980 (Bouldin, 2010).

If you were to question any public health professional as to what the greatest biomedical achievement of the last century was, they would likely struggle to find a more influential achievement than the development of vaccines. The struggling breaths of whooping cough, the horrendous birth defects caused by rubella, and the clunky braces used by children paralyzed by polio, all are only thought of as occurrences of the past by many Americans. Many find it hard to believe that less than a century ago; the infant mortality rate was a massive 20 percent (Alexandra, Markel, 2005). Fortunately, many of these devastating diseases have been eradicated because of the development and widespread use of vaccines. The history of vaccines is, however, very complex. The growth widespread use of vaccines requires a balance of scientific ingenuity and social acceptance. Vaccines historically have, and continue to, cause strong scientific, social, and cultural reactions.

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.

First, in 1796, a doctor named Edward Jenner performed the very first vaccination. “Taking pus from a cowpox lesion on a milkmaid’s hand, Jenner inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps. Six weeks later Jenner variolated two sites on Phipps ' arm with smallpox, yet the boy was unaffected by this as well as subsequent exposures” (Minna & Markel, 2005)& (Cave, 2008). The first vaccination allowed people to recognize that it was beneficial for their health. It provided the base for the rest of the variations of vaccinations to come. Vaccinations began with the notion that it is rooted in the science of immunology. Throughout history, there have been many variations of this first vaccine for things such as small pox, mumps, malaria and guinea worm. (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, n.d.)

Many people in countries like the United States take vaccines for granted and do not appreciate the benefits that come with their country-wide, mandated use. Similarly, each year about “three million children die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases,” therefore the vaccines that people would love to have access to could be going to children in need (Greenwood). In less developed countries, people are lucky to get vaccinated for common diseases, and jump at the opportunity to get a vaccine. Due to the many who die because vaccines are not available, people need to accept the vaccines are a luxury. Vaccines are safe to give to children and prevent children from becoming part of the one in three million who die because they did not get

My first point is that vaccinations save lives. The average life expectancy for an American citizen before the emergence of vaccinations was 30-40 years old. Since the advancement of modern medicine, the life expectancy has nearly doubled, rising to roughly 80 years old. Since 2010, there has been roughly 10,000 to 50,000 cases of whooping cough reported in the United States, many of which cases ended in tragedy. 10-20 babies die each year from whooping cough, a disease that is preventable by vaccine.  Since the 1990s, the mortality rate for children five and under has decreased by 28%. The average mortality rate of children under the age of five has decreased from 90 for every 1,000 births in the 1990s to 65 deaths per every 1,000 births. Despite the huge risks, the small percentage of those not vaccinated can be partially  protected if enough people in their community are

Since the early 1800’s vaccinations have been significant factors in eliminating many contagious diseases and, for the most part, have been an accepted part of preventative medicine in our nation. Veritably eradicating often fatal diseases such as smallpox, polio, and cholera, vaccinations have been vital in contributing to a healthier and more disease free world.

The first vaccinations were made by an Edward Jenner, who made a vaccine for smallpox; The disease was later eradicated because of the precautions of the vaccine. Although it is not mandated by the US, it is still strongly advised. People who are for vaccinations say that, “vaccination is safe and one of the greatest health developments of the 20th century. They point out

Throughout history, smallpox has been one of the dreaded scourges that inflicted mankind. World Health Organization (WHO) stated that smallpox is responsible for the 300 million death cases worldwide in the twentieth century. (Fenner, Henderson, Arita, Jezek , & Ladnyi, 1988) (Plotkin, 2004) It was only after Dr Edward Jenner’s development on the principle of vaccination that provided the only accurate technique for the prevention of smallpox. The introduction of vaccinia vaccine enabled the global eradication of naturally occurring smallpox in 1970, it is recorded that the last known smallpox case recorded was in Somalia after the eradication. (Rappuoli, Miller, & Falkow, 2002) Jenner’s procedure has been a highly effective immunizing agent, however, it seemed that it isn’t a successful fighter to disease because it carries high incidence of adverse side effects and severe complications. (Madigan, Martinko, Stahl , & Clark, 2012)This

According to the World Health Organization, a vaccine boosts the body’s immunity to a particular disease through the administration of an agent that resembles the disease-causing microbe, which is often composed of the diluted or dead microbe, its toxins or proteins. The agent rouses the immune system identifying it as foreign, destroys it, and then remembers it so that the immune system can easily recognize and destroy these same microbes in the event it encounters it again. It is often said that the first successful vaccine was developed, introduced and administered in 1796 by Edward Jenner to prevent the spread of smallpox. However, evidence points out that the inoculation of smallpox existed in China in 1000 C.E. and was later practiced

Many diseases have seen tremendously reduced cases since the synthesizing of their vaccinations. For instance, “More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only one case of diphtheria has been reported to CDC since 2004” (CDC.gov). Another example of this is “An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. In 2012, 9 cases of rubella were reported to CDC” (CDC.gov). Vaccines are constantly being developed to help save lives from disease, and so far have saved millions of lives all over the world. Tetanus, mumps, and measles shots are major examples of life saving vaccines; death rates due to these diseases have decreased dramatically since their

Vaccinations were first introduced in the late 18th century by Edward Jenner. He injected a small amount of cowpox in a thirteen year-old boy to demonstrate the effectiveness it had against smallpox, resulting in the development of the first smallpox vaccine in 1798. Because of his discovery, Jenner contributed to the overall annihilation of the disease in 1979 after the vaccine was implemented in different medicines throughout the world (source). Following Jenner, many others produced vaccines to help reduce the fatalities of common diseases such as measles, polio, and rubella, which were once responsible for millions of deaths every year. Now, there is almost no risk of catching these fatal illnesses.

Since vaccinations have been a commonly debated topic, scientist have discovered that vaccinations have been one of the greatest health discoveries in modern history. A study on the effectiveness of vaccines published in the 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association concluded

Vaccines are shots given to kids at certain points in their childhoods to help with their immunity to diseases. The solution in the shot has weakened forms of diseases, or dead forms of diseases, to introduce a child’s body to the disease. By introducing the body to the disease, the body is able to recognize the disease and build up antibodies against it, so the disease can’t harm the body. Through this process, many people have become immune to many terrible diseases such as: “polio, measles, diphtheria, pertussis, and mumps” (CDC). Many of the diseases that plagued humanity have been eradicated by the use of vaccination. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, smallpox was devastating Europe. With no known cure the chances of death were “at least a 60 percent” (Fenn). This all came to an end though when Edward Jenner created the first vaccine. By using a similar disease to smallpox, Jenner was able to inject people with the inferior disease. After the body would build up immunity to the disease, the patient would no longer be susceptible to