The Pros And Cons Of Edward Jenner

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.

Over many of years the world has faced problems concerning health. Many scientists and health experts have worked together to better our nation 's health care. English Physician and Scientist Edward Jenner, a small country doctor, who is well known around the world for his innovative contribution to immunization and the ultimate eradication of smallpox. (2005, Baylor University Medical Center.) It is believed that smallpox appeared around 10,000 B.C. Smallpox was introduced to Europe sometime between the fifth and seventh centuries and was frequently epidemic during the Middle Ages. Edward Jenner was born on May 17, 1749, in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. During his early school years, Edward developed a strong interest in science and nature that continued throughout his life. Jenner’s interest in natural history and animal biology sharpened his medical understanding of the role of human-animal trans-species boundaries in disease transmission. He experienced the proverbial “Eureka”-like moment sometime during the 1770s. At age 13 he was apprenticed to a country surgeon and apothecary in Sodbury, near Bistol. The record shows that it was there Jenner heard a dairymaid say, " I shall never have smallpox for I have had cowpox. I shall never have an ugly pockmarked face." While Jenner 's interest in the effects of cowpox began during his apprenticeshire with George Harwickle, it wasn 't until 1796 before he made the first step in a long process of smallpox would be exposed. Jenner

Due to the native’s total isolation from the rest of the civilized world, they had been prevented from developing immunities against many devastating diseases. These diseases were carried into the country unaware by the conquistadors from Europe and Africa. For example, smallpox reached Espanola by 1518 and was carried to New Spain in 1520. It then moved through Central America and entered Peru by 1527. Wherever the disease passed, it left a detrimental death toll in its wake. There are many accounts of villages that lost half or more of their population, some even lost as high as 90% of their population. Many more disease continued to slowly decimate the natives, such as measles typhus, influenza, yellow fever, malaria diphtheria and the bubonic plague. Within the next 100 year of disease, the native’s population became less than 10% what it was in the

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

When the Europeans had their first contact to the New World, it had a great impact on the spread of diseases that would wiped more than eighty to ninety percent of indigenous population. Neither Europeans nor Native Americans had medicine to fight the diseases. But Europeans had developed throughout the year’s immunities to fight diseases back in their homeland, so they were in a big advantage over the scarce resource that the Native Americans had. One of the main disease that killed millions of indigenous groups was called smallpox. Europeans had been exposed to many diseases throughout their history, in the Old World it was common for children at a young age to be infected with smallpox. So with advanced treatments with smallpox in the Old World, they had a different perspective on how to control these type of diseases. Many indigenous groups had not developed an immunities to fight smallpox. Reference to the book were it mentions that smallpox specifically means not the disease but the pimpled, pustules appearance which is the most obvious symptom of the disease (Crosby, p 43). As a result, many indigenous groups needed to find refuge due to the high percentage of deaths caused by European conquest and

It was during this era that Edward Jenner invented a vaccine to prevent smallpox by inoculating a healthy eight-year old boy with cowpox;

The smallpox epidemic that was introduced into the Americas by the European travelers was devastating, especially to the natives. Killing off 80-90% of native populations in just the first 150 years following 1492. [INSERT DIRECT SOURCE. FIND THE WEBSITE LINK, GO TO BIBME.COM AND SOURCE THIS INFO.] One of the reasons this disease was so devastating was due to the regrettable fact that the

Many major epidemics originated from diseases of domesticated animals: measles, influenza, typhus, and bubonic plague (Diamond, 1997). Centuries of living near livestock had basically inoculated European settlers against these diseases. Only those Europeans who could survive a plague outbreak were able to pass on their genes, leading to successive generations being less susceptible to the illnesses. According to Diamond, smallpox was a major player in the European invasion of the New World. Native Americans, however, did not have cattle, only llamas. They had never been exposed to smallpox. It decimated their populations. Historians estimate perhaps 95% of pre-Columbus Native Americans were killed by European diseases (Diamond, 1997). Because these epidemics spread in advance of the Europeans themselves, it made it that much easier for the European invaders to defeat the dwindling survivors.

Smallpox is a highly contagious virus that has no known cure. Variola, is the name of the virus that caused one of the largest epidemics known to man. Smallpox killed nearly 500 million people in the 20th Century alone. Before Smallpox was eradicated it killed nearly 60% of all infected people. Smallpox has been coexisting with humans for thousands of years and has a very long history.

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,

Before the settlement of the Europeans, there were approximately eight million Native Americans on the land of what was then call Hispaniola (The Dominican Republic and Haiti today), by fifty years the population of the Native Americans was only of five hundred (Heather Pringle). Not being immune to the new diseases and virus that the Europeans brought with them, the Native American population quickly declined. A few of the diseases brought to the New World by the Europeans were smallpox, typhus, cholera, measles, and many other viruses. The first major case was the smallpox was in Mexico. In 1520, Spaniards entered Mexico bringing African slaves that were affected with smallpox with them unknowingly aware of the sickness and death that will cause the Aztec Empire (Heather Pringle). The disease was being carried from person to person by misquotes. A few weeks later the Spaniards entered the Aztec Empire and discovered nearly half of their population affected by smallpox. According to uic.edu, “By 1595, over 18 million people had died of smallpox, mumps, measles and other European diseases.” Sadly, the Spaniards was able to rule that land due to the weakness of the Aztecs. Even more, with the Europeans settle more in the Americans, the population of the Native American will have a ninety percent decline which gave the

Smallpox killed about 500 million people. It was one of the world's most tragic epidemic. It was thought to have started Egypt 3,000 years ago. Also, it was eradicated in 1980, many people suffered. Smallpox is and was a very scary and dangerous virus.

For approximately three-thousand years, smallpox has ravaged and plagued the four corners of the globe. In fact, in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, it was claimed to be the most infectious disease in the West, with an astounding 90% mortality rate in America. It wasn't until 1796, with English surgeon Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination, that the world saw relief from this devastating virus. However, even with this inoculation in use, the world continued to witness death from both the virus and the vaccine. In the year 1966, it was estimated that 10-15 million infected citizens world wide had passed away from smallpox that year alone ( “History” 12). As a result of these devastating numbers, in the following year, 1967, the World Health

In the Old World, European’s lived near animals. Diseases were transferred from animals to humans and this caused the European’s to develop an immunity to the various diseases. This immunity resulted with the newer generations getting resistant genes, which helped them survive many different encounters with diseases. In the New World there were fewer domesticated animals. This meant that since these animals weren’t harmfully contagious the diseases would not transfer to humans from the animals. The New World was disease-free until the Europeans immigrated to the New World. When they came they carried diseases with them and in the New World the population contained of non-immune people. This meant that people got infected all at once and caused the death rate to increase extremely. Smallpox was the most severe cause of death of Indians. Symptoms of this disease are fever, exhaustion, chills, headaches, and lesions on the body. It affected both the Old and New Worlds. The disease would slow down if the population was too small, but it would spread quicker if the population